A Thorny Rose
by Jester310
Summary: For Law, his life is like a thorny rose. The thorns represent the hardship of being a single father of his children, Ace and Luffy. But as the grief of losing his wife is too great, the man fails to notice the delicate red petals that hug around him—his children, friends and his new redhead neighbor who wants nothing more but to love, care and protect Law and his family.
1. From The First Sight

**Chapter 1: From the First Sight**

**Rating: T**

**Genre: Family/Comfort/Hurt/Romance**

**Warnings: Angst, characters death, MAJOR OOC-ness, AU, and grammar**

**Summary: ****For Law, his life is like a thorny rose. The thorns represent the hardship of being a single father of his children, Ace and Luffy. But as the grief of losing his wife is too great, the man fails to notice the delicate red petals that hug around him—his children, friends and his new redhead neighbor who wants nothing more but to love, care and protect Law and his family. Now it is up to his new neighbor to teach him the fun and beauty of life.**

**A/N: *Fuh*Fuh* I don't know what wrong with me lately, but I'm in the mood for family theme. Arrkk! Don't get me wrong, I'm still going updating my other projects. And for early reminder, there would be major OOC-ness for this story especially Trafalgar Law. So please people, don't say I didn't warn you and later complain this and that. It really pains me to reply your snarky review with another of my much more snarkier mouth. .**

**So, enjoys!**

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_Ring! Ring!_

Killer jerked in surprise, causing the soda to slip from his grasp and fall onto the floor with a clatter. Dark liquid spilled from the can's opening and the blond sighed at the puddle collecting on the floor of the office.

Another set of ringing and the man stared at the communication device perched on the table. The office phone was ringing five thirty in the evening? It certainly wasn't the first, but it's been a while for someone to call the shop at this time around. Usually he would close the workshop at six and stopped taking requests from customers at around five, but…

In dilemma, Killer switched his gaze from the clock on the wall to the ringing phone. Clock. Phone. Clock. Phone. After making a tentative thinking, the blond quickly strode over and picked up the receiver. This would be the last car. Promise!

"Hello."

"Is this Newgate Workshop?" A deep, baritone voice asked.

"Yes." Killer replied as he leaned against the wall, his ankles crossed over.

"I received this number from my acquaintance. I assume that you are still operating at this hour?" The man on the other line questioned.

"We are." Correction, I AM. Since the blonde is the only one left in the garage.

For a moment, Killer heard a relieve sigh from the man. "My car wouldn't start and I'm not really familiar with car parts. So uh… Can you come and take a look?"

"Sure. I'll come right away." The blond muttered, his right hand went to grab the edge of small note book from the desk and brought it closer.

"That would be preferable."

Quickly, Killer scribbled down the man's location and hung up the phone. The piece of paper then tore from the book before the blond made his way to the door. Just when his hand was about to reach for the doorknob, the blond took a last look at the puddle of soda on the floor. Well, that would just have to wait after he returns back.

His working boots made a small squeaking noise as he jogged across the garage while tying his hair into pony tail with a rubber band. But before he could reach for the tow truck, a familiar red haired figure walked into the garage.

"What are you doing?" The redhead asked, eyeing Killer's attire. "You're still not ready?"

Killer halted on his track, swiveling his head to the newcomer. "Yeah, just got a phone call. This won't take long, Kidd."

The man called Kidd stared at the blonde incredulously and peeked at his watch. "It's already five thirty and you're still taking customer! And OF COURSE it'll take long. You're going to fix a car, not taking a bath!"

"I know. This is last—"

"Kill, its Friday. We're supposed to go out and have a drink or sumthin'." Still clad in his working attire, the redhead grumbled with deep frown.

At times like this, Killer felt like rolling his eyes at the man childish behavior. Kidd just had to choose to be petulant at wrong place and wrong time. The more he argued with him, the longer the damsel in stress waiting for him.

"This is the last one. I promise. You can just wait here and do… anything."

"Maybe I could come with you?" Kidd raised his eyebrow in suggestive manner. "I mean, you want me to stay here by myself? With all these—these cars and tools? There's not even a parrot to talk to!"

"What?" It was the blond turn to exclaim incredulously, climbing into his truck. "What's the different? It's not like you can do anything there. Stop sprouting nonsense."

Kidd shrugged. "Well… I can poke things…"

"Poke things." Killer repeated with a flat tone. "No you're not coming with me and you WILL stay here and behave. Just… do whatever!"

The command made the redhead to snarl indignantly. Killer was speaking as though he was a child and he felt like throwing the nearby wrench straight to his blond friend. But before he could give any smartass retort, the mechanic had already started the engine of the truck and proceeded to pull it out to the road.

At five forty in the evening, Eustass Kidd was left alone inside the car repair shop with nothing to do.

Huffing irritably, Kidd dragged a metal chair to the far end of the garage and sat on it, left leg crossed over the right one. Pale, nibble fingers went to loosen his black, satin tie before he rolled the sleeves of his sharp colored burgundy shirts up to his elbow. A heavy sigh escaped his thin lips while the redhead tilted his head back and leaned it against the wall, his amber eyes wondered around the garage.

The place called Newgate Workshop definitely wasn't the largest in the town but it was well known. The original owner, Edward Newgate, was Killer's distance relative and he had left the lucrative business to his blond friend, also known as his best apprentice. Don't get him wrong. It's not like the man had kicked the bucket or anything, but lately his health didn't agree with him so the old man decided to step down and opted to become a mentor to the greenhorns in the shops.

To Kidd, the Old Man (so they called him) was more like a father figure. Of course, after his parent's tragic when he was ten, the Old Man immediately took him in to be his adoptive son, along with his other friend, Marco. His parent and Marco's have always been good friends till one night they decided to have dinner at a local restaurant together while he and Marco were left under the care of a baby sitter.

That was the night he and Marco lost their parents and became orphans. Sometimes later, he learned that a drunken truck driver had run into their parents' car from the side. And they died on the scene.

Somehow, Kidd was glad of that. At least they didn't suffer.

For days, people mourned for their lost, including his best friend since first grade, Killer. That time, the blond didn't say anything comforting at all, or perhaps he wasn't familiar with any comforting words that he should use. But Killer was there for him. Sitting close to him, holding his hand firmly as though to say that everything would be alright. For Kidd, that was more than enough.

Just when they thought that either orphanage or foster house would be their new home, Newgate stepped into the scene, all of sudden declaring that he and Marco would be his new sons, together with Killer.

And that was it. Kidd, Killer and Marco became adoptive brothers ever since.

As for Killer's case, he had always been with the Old Man since he was a baby. Until now, nobody knows the story behind the blonds' family. Even the Old Man never spoke about them or maybe he knew, but didn't want to tell the tale.

In the end, they never did ask. Not even Killer.

For the umpteenth time, Kidd yawned and stretched his muscles. His watch showed five-forty-five and the redhead cursed loudly. All that brooding and only five minutes had passed?

Five fucking minutes?

The redhead crossed his arms over his chests as he slumped deeper into the chair, grumbling.

He should have dragged Marco with him after all.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx Xx**

After passing the third traffic light, Killer made a turn and drove straight towards his destination. Another five minutes of driving, his electric blue eyes finally spotted the damsel in stress who was seen sitting on curb, staring nothing in particular. He was lucky enough the sun was starting to set or else he would be burn to crisp by now.

The white, Audi A5 Sportback on the side of the road in which Killer presumed was his, had its hood opened and from he was seeing, there's no smoke coming from under it. That's a good sign. At least, nothing was blown up.

The sound of heavy tires on the road caused the man to look up and his face contorted into what Killer would take as a relieve expression. As the tow-truck was maneuvered behind the car, the damsel slowly pulled himself to his feet, dusting the dirt off his pants. The blond turned off the ignition and stepped outside from the truck before heading towards the awaiting man.

Out of formality, Killer stretched out his hand. "Name's Killer. You're the one who called for a mechanic?"

"Yes." The man shook his hand. Smokey grey met electric blue ones. "I can't be thankful enough that you could make it. I'm Trafalgar by the way."

Killer then slowly walked over to the front of the car. "So, this is it?"

In respond, Trafalgar made a humming sound as a confirmation. "I don't know what seems to be the problem. One moment I was driving, the next second the engine suddenly stopped running."

Bending down into the depth of the car, Killer made quick glance over the vehicle's internal parts. "Well, at least you managed to pull the car to the road side."

This time, the man didn't make any comeback, only silently observing the mechanic. He stayed closed to Killer, but not close enough that could cause discomfort for the blond. His gloved hands tweaked around with the bits of the engine that only confused Trafalgar even more.

"Are the headlights working?" Killer murmured, his face stuffed deeper into the engine.

"I'm not sure." Trafalgar answered hesitantly. "Let me try first."

The sound of low heels boots scrapping against the pavement echoed throughout the street before Trafalgar dived into the driver side and turned on the headlights. At least that what he intended to, but to Killer's expectation, the lights were dim before they were out.

"Your alternator is shot." Killer said once the man walked back to his previous position. "There's a build up corrosion, see?"

Trafalgar leaned down and looked over the area the mechanic was pointing at. "Oh…"

"That means the battery is not properly charged." The blond paused before he continued. "It's not complicated and I can fix it right away. But I need to take it back to my shop since the alternator need to be replaced."

"It's fine with me. How long will it take?" Trafalgar tilted his head slightly, his twin loop earrings made a soft clicking noise.

"Probably not more than a few hours." Replied the mechanic while he closed the hood of the car. His removed gloves were now perched on his shoulder. "You can wait in the garage while I work on it or you can call someone to pick you up and later you can collect your car when it's done."

"Or I can send you home if you want." Quickly, he added.

In front of him, the man called Trafalgar ran his fingers through his short ebony hair, looking rather torn.

"Actually I'm not from around here. And I don't think driving through the night is a good idea." He finally confessed.

Killer's mouth made an 'o' shape of understanding. "How about getting a hotel room for tonight? There's plenty around and I can drive you there."

The man nodded in agreement. After all, that was probably the only option left for him.

"Yes, I think I will do that. Thank you."

Nodding in acknowledgement, Killer went over to the wheel lifter but before he could attach the car to the truck, the man's voice stopped him.

"Could you… Wait for a moment?" Trafalgar requested before the man quick stepped to the back seats.

_Maybe he forgot something_, Killer mused as he saw the man opened the passenger door and dived halfway into the car. After a moment or two, Trafalgar immerged back. But that wasn't all.

Gathered in his arms, was a small child, probably not more than five. It was hard to tell since the child's body was wrapped with a blue blanket and judging by the unmoved bundle, it was safe to assume the child was sleeping. Or too tired to move.

As if the sleeping child in Trafalgar's arms wasn't a surprise, following him from the passenger seat was another child, older this time. Around eight or nine year old and clad in a bright orange sleeveless, the boy with the unruly, jet black hair was rubbing his bleary eyes, murmuring something inaudible to Killer's ears. The half-lidded eyes and the fly away strands on his heads indicated that he had just waked up, probably from a nap.

Trafalgar then bent down and said something to the boy, assuming that the man was trying to explain the current situation to him. From the look of it, Killer could tell the boy wasn't pleased with the news, if the deepening frown was any indication.

To say Killer was surprised was clearly understatement. He was shocked. Trafalgar looked… Well, let's be honest. The man didn't look like a married man and not to mention a father, especially with all those tribal tattoos decorating his arms and fingers, added with a pair of earrings on both ears.

After stroking the boy's head gently and murmuring reassuring words, Trafalgar strode back to where the mechanic was, the boy followed two steps behind him.

"Sorry. Please continue." The man re-adjusted the living bundle in his arms while the raven haired boy quickly gripped the hem of Trafalgar's shirt, eyeing the blond in front of him with his half lidded eyes.

Gods, it really tensed him whenever kids do that. It was like they were calculating whether you're a good guy or a big bad wolf.

To avoid the boy calculative stare, Killer quickly went back to work, attaching the car to the truck. Done that, Trafalgar mimicked the mechanic opening the cab's door but had to wait for a moment for Killer to clear the seat off and dumped everything in the back. The man ushered the boy to climb first so he was seated in between the two adults before taking a seat himself.

As they were pulling out, Killer suddenly spoke. "I'm going to drop your car at the shop first, then I'll drive you to the hotel."

"Of course." Trafalgar simply replied, hugging the small body close to his chest after shifting the child's weight ever so softly as his arm was starting to grow numb due to the same holding position. His long fingers went to pull the top of the blanket down slightly so the child wouldn't suffocate. From Killer's vintage point, he could tell the child was a boy based on how short his hair was. Similar to his brother and Trafalgar himself, the small child possessed the same jet black hair, slightly longer than his father but at the same time, shorter than his brother.

Oblivious to his surrounding, the child slept soundly, breathing in Trafalgar's familiar scent. The sound of his father's heartbeat was like a natural lullaby to him. Strong and calm. It made him feels safe and warm.

A small smile tugged the corner of his lips as Trafalgar watched the sleeping form of his son, glad that the child didn't as much stir from all those movements. Everytime he showed the sign of discomfort, the man would rubbed the small back and rocked the child gently back to sleep.

Of course, his other child finally decided to break the tranquility in the truck. Somehow, Trafalgar wasn't all surprise.

"I'm tired." The boy muttered, aiming the statement to his father. The freckles on his cheeks danced as he grumbled more.

"I know." The man answered softly enough not to wake the sleeping bundle. "Once we get to the hotel, you can have a rest and sleep."

Without giving any comeback, the boy rummaged through his sling bag and fished out a water bottle. Two large gulps later, he screwed the cap back and let it rest on his laps, rolling it back and forth. His black cargo shorts with printed graphic on the left crinkled under the ministration.

"I don't like this place." The boy complained more while keeping his gaze down.

A soft sigh. "Hush, Ace. Luffy is not feeling well but he doesn't complain like you do. Shame on you." As he scolded his son, Trafalgar shot a disproving look to the freckled boy.

For a minute or two, the boy didn't say anything, his fingers fiddled with the cap. Clearly, the boy was tired and needed to aim his frustration towards anyone. In some way, Killer didn't blame him. Then slowly, the boy named Ace leaned closer to his father and reached out his hand only to place his palm over his brother's forehead.

"Luffy's still hot, dad." He muttered out and quickly removed his hand when he saw the small child started to stir.

"Warm, Ace." Trafalgar corrected the boy as his fingers combed through the untamed hair gently. "Luffy is still warm."

As he watched his little brother, Luffy nuzzled his face into the fold of his father's shirt, Ace sank back to the seat, his legs dangling over the edge.

"What's wrong with your kid?" Killer finally piped in after a long stretched of silence, keeping his eyes close on the road.

"He has a slight fever. I have already given him ibuprofen and he's been sleeping ever since." The father of two replied while looking over to Ace who seemed to be more interested with the scenery in front of him.

"Must be hard." The blond glance over the man next to him, his hand went to release the gear as they stopped at the traffic light. "With all this travelling and him being unwell."

Trafalgar paused for a moment before replying. "I don't have much choice. There is a business I need to settle in this town and it has to be done by today. So I don't have any other option but to bring them along."

"Wife too busy?" Killer almost regretted his action when he noticed the man went rigid, his face twisted to what the mechanic could indentify as a pained look. It seemed like he had touched the raw nerve this time.

"My wife… She's—"

"She's dead." All of sudden, Ace carried on his father's sentence.

"Ace!" Trafalgar hissed at his son.

"What?" Frowning, the boy looked up to his father. "It's the truth."

"I already told you not to put it that way. Use—"

"Passed away." Once again, the boy interrupted. "I know. You told me a million times. It's still the same, dad. She's NOT here."

As he utter the last sentence, Ace's voice was barely a whisper. Underneath the grouchy voice, Killer could detect the cracking sound within as though the boy himself, was in the verge of tears.

Lost for words, Trafalgar leaned his head back and closed his eyes, leaving Killer to curse for his bluntness.

Damnit! How stupid can you be, Killer! His brain to mouth filter really needs to get tuned up one of these days.

Minutes passed by, the gloominess inside the cab was starting to make Killer all jittery. Trafalgar was still holding his sleeping child close while Ace poked around the fish shaped strap that dangled helplessly on the zipper of his bag. Each poke made would produce a clink, clink noise and the simple sound seemed to entertain the boy even for the slightest.

For the rest of the journey, the mechanic decided to keep his mouth sealed because he couldn't trust his mouth from uttering anything that might add salt to the wound.

Being as tense as it was, the image of the workshop building that finally came into his view was like an image of Heaven on the seventh layer. Except that, his redhead nemesis inside waiting for him was more like a devil from the seventh layer of Hell.

Deep inside, he just hoped Kidd hasn't really… 'poke' things inside the garage.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXx**

The sound of vehicle approaching made Kidd to divert his attention from the poster on the wall. He gazed at the stopping truck, his irritation grew by seconds and the feeling went sky rocket when he saw the towed car attached behind.

Great, Killer probably going to work on the car first before anything else. The blond was never good in denying people's request. But the odd thing was, when with him, Killer seemed to argue a lot.

Damn.

The second the mechanic was out of the truck and made eye contact with him, Kidd sent the most irritated glare he could muster to the blond in which Killer returned the glare with a warning look. The type of look clearly pronounced 'don't say anything'.

Like hell he won't say anything! Fine, he won't say anything in front of the client but later he would definitely bitch at the blond. For now, he would settle by giving perhaps an itsy, bitsy scowl to the customer who dared to ruin their night out and—and—

Less than one second, Kidd earlier idea was immediately rubbed away by the tiny fairies the moment his amber eyes landed on the unknown man that had came out from the truck. Clad in dark wash jeans, the slim denim fitted his long legs quite nicely through the hips and thighs. His navy tartan button up shirts hugged his torso oh-so-perfect, making the man appeared taller than he should be. In contrast with his paleness, the mysterious male possessed a rather dark skin that seemed to glow under the florescent lights of the garage.

The person who Kidd was supposed to be scowling at turned out to be a dark haired beauty.

Though, other features that caught his eyes were the living bundled cradled in his arms together with a small boy sticking close to him. Oh… a straight guy and already married to top that.

Rats.

Still, no harm admiring his beauty, right?

For a few seconds after stepping into the garage, Trafalgar did nothing but to absorb the interior of the workshop. It was simply big for his standard. Lucky enough, Ace didn't show any sign of wanting to explore the place and his son chose to stay close to him instead of running around and poked everything within his reach.

Obviously, the first born was too tired and irritated to do anything. More reason for him to find a hotel so his children could rest.

Grey orbs wandered around to search for the blond mechanic, but when his ears picked up an approaching footstep made by leather shoes, Trafalgar swiveled his head only to meet an open stare of an unfamiliar man. Judging from his formal and sophisticated office workwear, the dark skinned man knew that this man was certainly not a worker here. The man's amber eyes met his for a second before the pale man averted his eyes towards the upcoming mechanic behind him.

"What's up?" He asked as he followed the blond to the office, leaving Trafalgar with his own devices. There was a usual form that needed to be filled in by the customer and Killer just needed to locate the bloody papers. And his job wasn't getting any easier when Kidd sticking close to him and he ended up elbowing the redhead a couple of times.

"Need to fix his car, but before that I need to drive him to a hotel." The mechanic murmured while his hand snatched the log book from the top shelf.

Frowning, Kidd leaned his back against the single working table inside the office. He saw the black puddle on the floor but decided not to comment on it. "Hotel? Why?"

From the log book, Killer now started rummaging the drawer for a pen. "He's not from around here. So it's better for him to find a hotel rather than driving through the night."

"Look, Kidd." Once he located the pen, the blond finally focus his attention on the redhead. "This might take a while. Why don't head out to the bar first or bring Marco with you? I'll join you when I'm done."

"I'll drive him to the hotel." The suddenness of the speech made it hard for Killer to perceive whatever Kidd had just said.

"What?"

"I said I'll drive the guy to the hotel. It'll save your time, right?" Kidd shrugged and looked at the gaping blond. For some reason, the expression was kind of pissing him off as though courtesy wasn't listed in his dictionary.

In front of him, Killer was still swimming through his shock before his eyes slowly narrowed down into a dangerous slit.

"He's straight."

Kidd scowled at the blonds' statement. "I know that."

"He has kids."

"I said I fucking know that! I'm not blind, Killer." The redhead snapped. "What? You think I'm going to jump on him?"

The heated glare shot towards him was enough to melt steel and the blond ignored the look, glancing over the ebony haired man outside. Oblivious that he was being the subject of their conversation, Trafalgar didn't even spare a glimpse towards their direction.

"Well, considering your history and preference, I do." Replied the blond, half expecting for another snarl to be thrown at him.

A snorted came instead. "You made it sound like I'm a potential rapist. Oh please… I'm not that desperate to jump on a straight guy in front of his own kids."

Not in the mood to hear another of Killer's comeback, Kidd stormed out from the office and headed straight towards the oblivious man. He wasn't aware of the redhead's presence until the boy tugged the hem of his shirts to gain his attention. There was a mild puzzlement on his face when Kidd stopped his track right before him, only two meters apart.

"Hey." Kidd started. "Killer's going to start working on your car, so I'll help you find a hotel."

It wasn't much of a surprise when the man didn't respond, aside from staring blankly at him. After a while, he finally spoke, "You are not a worker here." It was a statement rather than a question.

"Nope. I'm just a friend of the blondie, but he calls me his nemesis though."

"I don't want to trouble you." The dark skinned man looked hesitant. His eyes caught the sight of the boy's fingers tugging the loose thread on the hem of his button up shirt, but he chose to ignore his child's newfound entertainment.

"It's not a big deal. I'm waiting for Killer to finish up actually, so might as well kill the time. At least it's better than being copped up inside here." Kidd watched the boy who appeared edgy. An edgy kid inside a car workshop is definitely a big no-no.

"But—"

"Calm down." The redhead quickly interrupted. "The nearest hotel isn't far from here. It's not like I'm going to drive you to another country. See? No trouble at all."

Few seconds passed while Trafalgar threw a calculative stare that made Kidd weak on his knees. Not good. This man was simply too gorgeous for his own good.

"Very well then." The answer caused Kidd to smirk inwardly. "Thank you."

As it happens, Trafalgar really had no intention of giving the man any hassle but seeing how restless Ace became by the passing minutes, he took the offer after weighing all his options. Not that he had much to begin with.

So when the man didn't seem to make any move from his spot after Kidd had signaled to follow him, the redhead shot a quizzical look. "Something…?"

"Well…"

"He's waiting for the paperwork, you brute." The familiar, annoyed voice boomed just behind him. With a slight spun on his heels, the redhead brute now facing an overly annoyed Killer whose flapping a thin book in front of his face.

Killer the sidestepped him and walked straight to the dark skinned man. "Here, fill these first."

"Um, my hands are kind of full here…" Trafalgar shifted the child in his arms to emphasize his point. "So can you…?"

"Sure." Killer simply answered. Using the nearby chair as makeshift horizontal surface for him to write, the blond filled in the form by jotting down the related particular like name, phone number, etc.

Satisfied with the information needed, the mechanic click shut his pen and stood up. "I'll call you tomorrow and drive the car over to your place. Just to make sure everything's working fine."

"Alright." The dark skinned man nodded in understanding. "I will see you tomorrow then."

His low heels boots made a click clack noise against the garage floor as he followed the redhead to his car that was parked just outside the workshop. Before he climbed into the dark maroon Saturn Outlook XR, Kidd had quickly grabbed his matching black-wool jacket from the front passenger seat at dumped it at far end of the back seat so the boy would have more space to sit and move around. Once seated, the ebony haired man had to juggle the living bundle in his hand for him to be able to wear the seatbelt. After shifting here and there, he finally managed to slip the belt in between his body and the sleeping figure and secured the buckle in place.

Kidd waited patiently for the man to make himself comfortable before starting the engine. As they were pulling out, the man took a quick glance on the review mirror.

"Ace, seatbelt." He reminded the boy and gave a satisfied nod after he heard the familiar clicking noise.

The sun has already set by the time they were out on the road and the dark street were illuminated by the street light with a purpose of revealing signs and hazards outside of the headlights' beam.

"Dad." The boy suddenly called.

"Hnn…?"

"Do we really have to move?" he inquired more, dissatisfaction was laced in his voice.

"Yes, Ace. We've talked about this."

The boy frowned and fisted his pants. "I don't like it here. All my friends are there."

Heaving a sigh, the ebony haired man rocked the child in his arms, silently hoping their conversation wasn't heard. "We will visit them every weekend. I promised, remember?"

"How?" The boy's raised his voice slightly, all challenging. "You even work on weekend. How are we going to visit them if you're working?"

"I will arrange my work schedule, alright?"

"Whatever." He muttered and sank deeper into leather seat, watching the scenery passed by through the side window.

Inhaling a deep breath, the man bit his lips as he mentally willed himself to be patient. His children were tired and it was expected for them to throw tantrum. Of course, he would much prefer if his son doesn't do it in a presence of other people.

Next to him, Kidd was in mute mode. For him, it was wiser not to meddle with other people family affair, especially when he had no idea what the issue exactly was. Besides, like old people always says, if you don't have anything better to say, shut up. Full stop.

There was a short stretch of silence before the man turned to look at the driving redhead.

"Uh," He said softly so the redhead wouldn't get startled. "I still haven't got your name."

Chuckling, the redhead glanced at the awkward man next to him through the corner of his eye. "Yeah, you're right. Kidd. Eustass Kidd."

"Oh… Mister Eustass then. I'm Trafalgar Law."

"So, Trafalgar huh…" Lord, even his name sounded so nice when rolled in his tongue. "Killer told me you're not from here."

"Please, just Law. Trafalgar is a bit mouthful. And yes. I'm from Logue Town actually. How about you Mister Eustass? Is this… your hometown?" Law asked softly, hugging the small form close to him but not in a suffocating way.

"Hm-hm." Kidd just hummed in confirmation. "Born and grew up here. I tried working in another town but it wasn't long before I ran back here." The redhead then chuckled and tapped his fingers on the wheels when red light was taking too long to switch.

The ebony haired man continued the ice breaking activity. He was glad the redhead was an easy man to talk with. "I know you're not a mechanic like Mister Killer. What do you do? Your work, that is…"

"Oh. I'm an engineer."

Law felt his eyebrows rose in mild surprise. "That's too vague. There're many types of engineer, Mister Eustass."

His pearly white tooth gradually exposed as Kidd grinned slightly. "Civil engineer. My team is currently working on the new seventeen storey condominium and yeah… gives me a headache sometimes."

Unsure on what to comment, Law only gave small nods. But after a while, the redhead turned to him, eyes questioning.

"Well…?"

"What?" Law questioned back, not grasping the man's inquiry.

"I told you about my job. Tell me yours. Aah, wait, wait! Let me guess!" Kidd quickly held up his hand before the ebony haired man could open his mouth. "A businessman? Or a bank manager? A detective? Am I even close?"

A small chuckle reverberated inside the confinement of the car and that was when Kidd decided that he enjoyed hearing the man's voice, more so when he laughed.

When the chuckles finally died, Law was still seen smiling. "I'm a surgeon. A Thoracic surgeon to be exact. If there's something wrong with you heart, lungs and other organs in your chests, then I'm your man."

Oh indeed be my man.

"Wow, a surgeon. That's one hell of a serious job." Kidd heard himself in contrast with his inner monolog.

"Don't be so certain, Mister Eustass." Law corrected the man with a smile. His tattooed fingers re-adjusted the air-conditioner so the cool air wouldn't hit straight to his sleeping child.

"My job can be amusing sometimes."

Kidd looked skeptical. "You mean funny stuff happens during surgery?"

Bobbing his head in affirmation, Law had to bit his inner cheek to prevent himself from laughing. "Indeed. I remember this one time where we had to perform a surgery on this man who had a stiletto heel stuck in his chest. It was quiet deep, around three inches if I'm not mistaken and only few centimeters from his heart. I was informed that the heel actually belongs to his girlfriend who caught him cheating with another woman."

Silence reigned throughout the car as the redhead tried to digest the information. As soon as the spoken words got assembled in his head, Kidd let out the richest laugh of the day. But he quickly stifled them using the back of his hand for the sake of the sleeping bundle. After a minute or two, the man finally managed to calm down with a single tear escaping the corner of his eyes.

"You can't be—I mean, really?"

"I wouldn't lie to you. During that time, it took every ounce of my will not to laugh while holding the scalpel or else it would have jeopardized the surgery."

"Okay, okay. I take it back. That was pretty funny." Kidd couldn't help himself from producing another set of chuckle, but the quite laugh stopped when the child was stirring in Law's arms, slowly blinking up at his father's face.

"Hey…" Law whispered softly, locking his eyes with the hazy nut brown. "How are you…?"

The child didn't answer right away while he tried to focus his eyes on Law. But when he did, his child-like voice sounded so innocent enough to melt anyone's heart.

"Sleepy…" He finally answered.

"Want to get back to sleep?" His tanned fingers stroked over the child's chubby cheek.

Shaking his head left to right, his nut brown eyes roamed all over the car's interior. "Where are we? Are we home yet, daddy?"

"Not yet, Luffy." Law's voice was all gentle. "We can't go home tonight. The car broke down so we have to stay a night in a hotel. We'll go home tomorrow."

"Our car broke?" His voice suddenly raised an octave. "Do we have to mend it with glue?"

The ebony haired man laughed at his son's idea. "No, Luffy. We can't use glue. There's someone who is very good at car going to fix it."

Still confused, the child named Luffy only responded with a single 'oh' before he squirmed in Law's arms, struggling to sit up. Although he finally managed to sit on his father's laps, he leaned the side of his body against Law's torso, his small head rest on the doctor's chest. The blanket still wrapped around his body though it was already loosened.

"Ace, water." Law muttered, stretching out his hand to the back. After some rummaging, the said boy passed the half empty bottle to the awaiting and the man quickly unscrewed the cap before bringing it up to Luffy's lips.

Three small sips later, Luffy shook his head to indicate he had enough and the doctor passed the bottle back to the first born.

"Hungry." Luffy murmured into the fold of his blanket.

"We'll get something to eat once we get to the hotel." Cooed the father. He regretted for not bringing at least some snacks for his children. They left the house in a rush that morning, the only things Law managed to pack were some medicines for Luffy and water. Even Ace's handheld game console was left behind, much to his son's frustration.

"He's ok?" Kidd gave a sideway glance at the quiet child perched on Law's laps.

"His fever already broke down." The man answered, palming Luffy's forehead. "The side effect from the ibuprofen still making him lethargic though."

"I'm not trying to be nosy or anything… but wouldn't be easier if you just leave them with your wife or maybe a baby sitter?" Kidd eyed the man carefully for any sign of discomfort. There was none, except for a weak smile marring his handsome face.

"Today's trip was too sudden so I couldn't find any baby sitter available this morning. The family that I always leave my kids with too, is currently out of town. And my wife… " The man paused, smoothing down the fly away strands on Luffy's head with his fingers. "She's not around…"

_Not around…? Must be one hard working woman,_ Kidd deduced, unaware of the pained look on the doctor's face.

Slowly, Law twisted his body to look over his first born son. "Ace, do you bring Luffy's toys?"

"Yeah." The boy simply answered before pulling out a plush toy from his multipurpose bag and handed it to his father— a handmade, blue whale plush made with crotchet style and stuffed with hobby fill.

"Laboon!" Luffy squealed excitedly, squeezing the super soft plushy in his hands.

"Sorry I couldn't bring Puffing Tom along." The man said apologetically as he referred to his child's train toy.

"It's okay, daddy." Luffy reassured his father, his small fingers flicking the buttons that were used for the whale's eyes. "I like this better. Mommy made it!"

For a second, Law felt a sharp pang in his chests. Indeed, the simple plush whale was handmade by his late wife and she made it with infinite love and care for her child. At first, Luffy had wanted the displayed, expensive whale plushy he saw at the town's toy shop but the manager regretfully informed them the displayed whale wasn't for sale. To make the matter worse, the shop was out of stock for that particular plushy and the new stock wouldn't arrive for another month. Feeling dejected, they have to return home with Luffy sniffling all the way.

To ease the child sadness, his wife spent his entire sleepless night to knit the whale shaped plushy with the help of cups of coffee and a crotchet book. The result wasn't perfect to say since sewing and knitting weren't her area of expertise after all. But it was more than enough to make Luffy bounced in happiness.

In the end, Luffy had forgotten all about the expensive whale plushy from the toy shop. He was too content with the one his mother made.

His late wife, Tashigi, was a police captain of the local police department and had a very strong sense justice. Her line of duty is without doubt, dangerous and Law had always feared for his wife safety. But at the same time, he was proud of her. If measured, her sense of justice was beyond the chart, but so is her love for her family. In front of criminals, she could be as brutal and strict as she could be, but before her children, Tashigi was the gentlest mother one could wish for with unlimited amount of love and tender radiated from her.

But eventually, it was her line of work that took her life away.

It was during a bank robbery and Tashigi's unit was dispatched to the scene. Before long, gunshots were exchanged between the fleeing robbers and the police. Being a person of justice herself, her wife chased for the fleeing robbers and all of sudden, a car was pulled over and the driver shot her from point blank. It turned out that the robbers had accomplices and were waiting to assist them to escape.

When the news of his wife being shot reached him, Law felt the earth underneath him just collapsed.

Tashigi was admitted to the very same hospital he was working at and the surgery was handled by none other than his trusted colleague, Dr. Tony Chopper. For every agonizing minutes passed, it took every millimeter of his will not to burst into the surgery room and demanded an update. But with Ace and Luffy on his side, Law managed to hold himself together while waiting outside the operation room.

Finally, after eight hours of waiting, the result was more than Law could handle. Out of three gunshot wounds, one of the bullets had directly damage her intrathoracic organs and Tony had clearly stated that Tashigi's chance of survival was only 40/60.

For days, her consciousness was on and off and she was barely aware of her surroundings. The image of tubes and devices attached to his wife was like a sight from hell and Law felt like breaking. Throughout the times, he had the difficulty to make Luffy to understand the situation and his mother's condition. It pained him even more when the child kept on questioning when his mother could return home and read bedtime stories for him.

Law had never felt so helpless.

Unlike his little brother, Ace comprehended the situation perfectly the moment he stepped into Tashigi's room. The first born has always been a bright boy for his age. Not even once the boy had cried as he feared if he starts crying, then Luffy too, would follow suit. Ace refused to eat during that time, only choose to stay close to his mother and hold her hand firmly.

On the third day, both Tashigi's lungs collapsed and before the doctors and nurses could do much, a long beeping sound echoed throughout the room. For a moment, no one spoke, not even a gasp.

Law was the first to cry.

A soft bump to his nose snapped the doctor back to the present time. He blinked a couple of times and looked down at his smiling son. Apparently Luffy had used the whale plushy to bump on his nose and chin playfully and he giggled at his father's startled look.

In need to calm his mind, Law hugged the child closer and buried his face into the raven lock. He ignored the ticklish feeling caused by the soft strands, relishing the sensation of having his children close to him. Unaware with his father's sorrow, Luffy let himself being held close, making a whooshing sound as though the plushy whale in his hand was swimming in the middle of the ocean.

Amber eyes made a cautious glance at the doctor as the redhead continued with his driving, puzzled at the man's sudden change of behavior. One second he was chatty, and the next second Law went taciturn like something was bothering him. It was hard to make out his expression since the father had his face buried into the raven hair of his child. And for a split second, Kidd thought he heard a sniffling sound, but when he did a double take, the small child was still squealing happily.

Must be his imagination.

Behind the two adults, Ace stared the back of his father, eyes knowing. He knew the man still missed his mother because he would see him crying while watching their family video when his father thought he and Luffy had sleep upstairs. Or sometimes, he would stare the family picture hung on wall for more than ten minutes, unmoving.

"Dad." Ace decided to steal his father attention.

Slowly, Law straightened his pose. "Yes, Ace?"

"What are we going to wear tonight? We didn't bring pajama with us."

Law mentally slapped himself. He had never thought about it. They have been wearing the clothes they had on since morning and the doctor could imagine how uncomfortable it would be if they are worn again for the entire night and even for tomorrow.

"We'll buy some after we settle ourselves at the hotel. There should be some shops nearby that we can go." Law voiced out while holding on Luffy's legs from kicking the gear. His socked feet squirmed when his father squeeze the limbs gently.

"Or we can stop by the shop now." Kidd slipped in, gesturing at the insight street shops.

"You don't mind…?" The doctor asked carefully.

"Of course not. You worry too much." Before Law could give any comeback, Kidd already pulled the car over and let it parked at the roadside parking line.

"I'll stay here and wait." The redhead said as pulled the break.

"Then, I'm staying too." Ace spoke abruptly.

Looking concern, Law twisted his head to see his son. "Are you sure you don't want to pick on your own?"

A small headshake was all the answer the doctor received.

"Can you stay here with Ace, Luffy?"

The child perked up at the word 'stay', eyes widened in alarm. "No! I want to go with you!"

"But Luffy—"

"Luffy!" Ace hissed at his little brother stubbornness. His father was already tired from nursing him all day and him being childish wasn't making their situation any better. If Luffy go to the shops, he would just keep on pointing this and that, demanding to be bought things that's not even necessary.

"Come here." The first born continued, his stern eyes cut whatever whines Luffy wanted to throw. Sticking out his lower lip, the small child slowly crawled to the back, squeezing his small body in between the front seat.

After making sure his children had settled down, Law left the car and didn't waste any time heading for one of the many street shops. As for now, he was just going to pick whatever comfortable for the boys' nightwear and for tomorrow as well.

Amber orbs followed the doctor's silhouette until he disappeared behind the shop's door. The inside of the car was filled with the child-made splashing sound and some humming. Kidd looked over the review mirror and saw the previous sulking Luffy was now lying on the back seat, his head on Ace's laps. The first born son then was seen rummaging his multipurpose bag before pulling out cartoon printed, soft gel sheets for immediate fever relief.

Although Ace had heard that Luffy's fever has already broken down, he just needed to make sure. He tore opened one of the sheets and removed the transparent film before sticking it on Luffy's forehead. The sudden coolness caused the child to squeak and kicked the door repeatedly.

This was probably the first time in Kidd's life being left with small children and honestly, he didn't have the slightest idea on how to communicate with them. Now that his eyes closed, the fatigue from the day finally started to kick in and the redhead suddenly felt rather drowsy and—

"Hey you."

Startled at the voice suddenly booming next to his ears, Kidd almost jumped out of skin, his knees bumped painfully against the steering wheels.

"Holy shit!" The man muttered under his breath and almost slapped himself afterword when he remembered there were children in the car. Of course, one of the children was actually perched next to him.

As he rubbed his chests, Kidd slowly turned and gave a quizzical look at the boy who had his head poked through the gap of the front seats.

"Why are you looking at my dad like that?" Ace inquired, still eyeing the startled man intently.

"What?"

"You're looking at him like all those salesgirls always do when he took us to shopping."

For the next ten seconds, the eight year old gazed closely at the red-haired man who did nothing intelligent except for making spluttering noises. Just when his mouth was about to let out another piece of his mind, the upcoming silhouette of his father forced Ace to move back to his previous position. And the boy went back to his previous activity. Staring into nothingness.

"Here." Said Law once he was seated inside, passing two carrier bags to his sons.

Out of pure curiosity, the children slowly looked through the content of the bags.

"Whales!" Luffy chorused excitedly, holding out the baby blue, whales printed pajama.

"I picked it up because it looks like Laboon." The man answered the bouncy child, glad that his choice of nightwear delighted Luffy. Due to his fever, the small child has been too lethargic to do anything other than snoozing like a lion cub in midday. It brightened him just to see his youngest son was back to his old self although Luffy's boundless energy could be a little bit tiring sometimes.

"Look Ace! Yours a dragon!" The small child continued and thrust the newly bought nightwear to his brother's hands. Years of living with Ace, Luffy was well aware of his brother's fondness towards the color orange and anything that has fiery image.

"Yeah." Ace responded, his hand touching the printed chibi-like dragon on the front of his pajama top.

Relieved that Ace too, seemed to be satisfied with his pick, Law was about to inform the redhead that he was done with his shopping and ready to get moving but the anxious look on Kidd halted him.

"Mister Eustass?" He called for him, earning himself another startled look from Kidd.

"W—what?" Kidd cursed for his inability to get his mouth to work properly, all thanks to Ace. The impact from the boy's words was greater than he could ever imagine. At some point, the redhead wanted to wish for a hole to suddenly appear and swallow him whole, just for him to escape the awkward feeling.

"…Are you alright? Are you not feeling well?" The ebony haired man felt slightly alarmed now that his doctor instinct kicked in.

"Y-yea—I mean, no! I'm—I'm ok. Just…" Pausing, Kidd stole a glance at the eight year old who blatantly ignored his classic deer in the headlights look. "Just remembered something. So uh, you're done right?"

Still not convinced with Kidd exclamation, Law's frown went deeper but he chose not to meddle with the man's dilemma. "Yes I am."

If word can describe the feeling Kidd was having at the moment, then it would be H.E.L.L.I.S.H. As their journey in finding a hotel continued, Kidd felt something or rather someone was drilling hole from behind of his head. Never in his life would have thought that a child's stare was so powerful it probably could carve diamond with ease. He was lucky that Luffy's squealing fit was able to tone down the nerve-racking mood even though it seemed to have served as a difficulty for Law since the doctor now had to calm his youngest son from jumping on the backseat.

With another turn made, a mid-priced hotel finally came into sight. Half of Kidd wanted to breathe in relieve as he could finally escape the tense atmosphere, but half of him felt disappointed since this was the cue that he would be parting with the gorgeous doctor.

Unaware of the redhead's inner turmoil, Law was feeling rather satisfied with the hotel he was seeing. This was obviously the type of hotel designed for business travelers but also accommodates family. What pleased him more was this sort of hotel usually provides room service and even has a restaurant and a mini mart, so it would be easy to get food for his children.

"Thank you for everything, Mister Eustass." The doctor thanked the redhead after he was out of the car. Now that his fever was almost gone, Luffy was no longer carried and sticking close to his brother. But when Ace was still emitting an irritated aura and scowled at anyone who as much looked at them, the smaller boy quickly ran back to his father and hugged him from behind, causing Law to stumble slightly forward.

"Don't mention it." Kidd said through the rolled down window, smiling slightly. "And um, have a good time with your kids. G'night."

While Law made his way to the hotel entrance with his children in tow, the doctor suddenly turned around and waved at Kidd, making the redhead's heart melted. Even after he entered the building, Kidd was still looking at the exact spot where the doctor was last seen.

Something inside Kidd stirred.

**-To Be Continued-**

**A/N: I know this is waaayyy too long for a first chapter, but heck. The first impression is always important, right!**


	2. A Chocolate On Saturday Morning

**Chapter 2: A Chocolate on Saturday Morning**

**A/N: For those who reviewed the first chapter, thank you sooooo much! At least I know there are readers who're pleased with this project despite it's a major AU.**

* * *

**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo xoxoxoxoxoxoxo**

At 9.30 AM, Kidd started his day by staring at a laid out building plan, his finger tapping against his work desk furiously. Brows furrowed together, the redhead scribbled down on his notebook while muttering something under his breath before the door behind him creaked open.

"Yo." The intruder greeted him and Kidd didn't as much reply but only to lock his eyes on the plan, although he did make a grunting noise as an acknowledgment.

"If you keep on staring on that thing, you'll burn that plan and even drill a hole through the table."

"Well Marco…" The redhead muttered, still not looking at the intruder. "This is what you get when you're dealing with a snobbish client that doesn't even have a damn clue what they're asking for."

Without an invitation, Marco strode in and leaned against the side of the table Kidd was working on, a white mug in his hand. "Dateline's close?"

"Close?!" The engineer sighed, throwing the pen on the table before the utensil rolled further and fall onto the floor with a small clatter. "They don't provide me enough time to begin with! Now they're urging me to get ready with a complete design by what? Next two weeks? It's a sixteen storey condo for fuck sake, not a wooden cabin!"

Marco could only shake his head at his frustrated friend and handed him the mug in his hand in which the redhead accepted it with a small murmur of 'thank'. "Guess what?"

"Hnn…?" Kidd hummed, blowing the surface of the dark liquid before sipping it slowly.

"Our new neighbor is coming today. Saw the moving truck just now." The blond watched Kidd's eyebrow rose slightly as the man nursed his drink.

"Neighbor? The empty house next to us?"

"Where else? Come on, let check out whose going to be our new neighbor." Without so much warning, Marco dragged the redhead by his arm. "Who knows if there's a guy who'd suits your taste."

Oh no, Marco. That would be a straight, drop dead gorgeous doctor who's already married and have two kids.

"Where's Killer?" Kidd asked while the duo passed by the living room. The kitchen was empty and the redhead doubted his early bird friend was still bundled inside his room.

"He's already outside."

"He's already snooping?"

"The only one who knows how to snoop around like a burglar here is YOU." Snickering, Marco shook his head at the attempted joke. "Killer doesn't do snooping and sneaking around. He only stares openly at people and says 'I hate you' if he doesn't like that person."

"There's always a first time to everything." Kidd shrugged before they went over to the long haired blond who leaned casually against the door frame.

"They're here yet?" Marco poked his head through the opened door only to see a moving truck parked outside the house next door while the workers had already started unloading the boxes from the truck.

"Not yet—aah wait. I think that's them." Killer replied, smacking away Marco's hand that tried to tug his tied up hair.

True enough, a newly arrived, white sedan car stopped just behind the truck. The familiar structure of the car caught the electric blue eyes, more so when the occupant of the car climbed out of the driver seat.

"Hey, isn't that…" Killer started, pausing long enough to see the full length feature of the person.

And Kidd seemed rather uninterested with this entire neighbor thingy, so the redhead went back inside the house until…

"… Trafalgar?"

At that exact moment, Kidd felt everything around him just frozen and the mug in his hand almost slipped from his hand. For a solid five seconds, the redhead just stood there, unmoving. Part of him tried to convince that he had heard the blond wrong but another part of him was screaming obscenity that his ears were still in top condition, therefore there was no mistake regarding the name that escaped Killer's lips.

Slower than a snail, the redhead twisted his head almost 180º and swallowed thickly the sudden lump in his throat. There, stood just by the side of the truck was the man that have been haunting his restless dreams for the past two weeks, looking sexy as ever in his navy belted cargo and the black jack, stripped, slim-fit polo.

There was no mistaking it. It was the straight, drop dead gorgeous surgeon, namely Trafalgar Sexy Law. In front of the next door house. An empty house that should be occupied…

Ho. Ly. Fuck.

Multiples disarrayed thoughts battled for supremacy in Kidd's head—_what is he doing here? He's the new neighbor? Damn, he looks sexy as hell in that tight polo. Oh Lord, no, no! He's a married man with wifey and children. Calm down, Eustass. Be calm and stop gawking like a pervert._

Oblivious to his gawking neighbor, Law kept on observing the unloading process for another few minutes while keeping a firm hold on his children to prevent them from wandering around and interrupting the unloading work. But when the youngest started to show the sign of wanting to wrench his hand free, the man quickly scooped the small child up. The second his father picked him up, Luffy tried resisting. He squirmed and flailed like a hellion he was to be put down but Law's hold was like an iron. Again and again the child struggled until he caught the sight of Ace frowned sternly at him. Immediately, the squirming died down as the small child hid his face in the fold of Law's shirt to avoid his brother's irritated gaze.

All of sudden, the boy turned his head towards their future neighbor. Cognac-brown orbs locked with three pairs of eyes. Kidd wondered if Ace remembers him and Killer. Hell, most of the time the kid was too cranky to care about his surroundings. But then again, he did have a conversation with that boy.

Not a nice one though.

And Ace even had the nerve to shot what-are-you-looking-at look towards the trio. That is, before a realization hit the boy.

Oh yeah, he remembers alright.

After confirming his suspicion, the boy yanked his father sleeves and murmured something to Law. Ever so slowly, the doctor shifted his attention.

A pair of smokey-grey eyes studied them and a mild surprise was apparent on his face. Kidd felt his heart stopped just by seeing those exotic eyes. So when Law acknowledged them by offering a small smile and a simple dip of a head, the redhead could have sworn that there was a ray of light shined behind the surgeon, blinding him till the point Kidd had to close his eyes and take a very deep breath.

"You guys know him?" Marco suddenly piped in and the redhead was grateful for the distraction.

Killer shoot a wary look at the redhead but chose to answered his housemate otherwise. "We met him around two weeks ago. A customer actually."

"Really? Talk about coincidence. And somehow I feel a little bit left out." Marco paused his mumble when he noticed Kidd looked like as though he was searching for something.

"What are you looking for?" Killer whispered to Kidd, softly enough not to be heard by Marco.

"Hmm… nothing much…" Still roaming his eyes around, the redhead muttered. "Just want to see the lucky lady who managed to steal the gorgeous surgeon's heart. It's kind of pun, don't you think, Kill? Considering his work—"

"Kidd."

"What?" Kidd was all defensive, especially at the forming frown on the blond. "Relax, blondie. I'm not some assholish-bastard that has enough nerve to ruin people's marriage even—"

If possible, the frown only went deeper. "You don't know?"

"Know what?"

A small sympathy sigh. "I thought you knew… His wife passed away. And considering the look on his face, I think it happened recently."

A mixture of shock and concern engulfed the redhead while Kidd raked his mind throughout their conversation.

_My wife… She's not around._

Even it wasn't entirely his fault for bringing the subject up, Kidd still felt like kicking himself.

"Shit…" Kidd couldn't stop from cursing.

"What's wrong…?" Marco stood next to the redhead. Although he didn't know the exact story, but the pieces from here and there was enough for him to follow the conversation.

"I said something stupid to him that day." As he confessed, Kidd eyed the doctor through the corner of his eyes.

"Let me guess," Killer gave an understanding look. "You mentioned his wife?"

Another groan of confirmation. "I don't why, but somehow I feel like an asshole."

The long haired blond patted Kidd's shoulder.

"Well, that makes the two of us."

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXx**

This is definitely unexpected turn of event. For them to become neighbor, that is.

At the same time, Law felt at ease after knowing that he was already acquainted with his new neighbor, aside from the short haired blond. Well, he wasn't sure if those two consider him as acquaintance, but they did help him and even had a decent conversation. So in his book, that was companionship.

As the doctor sat on the tiled floor, Law glanced over the unpacked boxes scattered all over the living room and there were even some more in the kitchen. Also, the furniture needed to be re-positioned a bit to make the room bigger and more welcoming. Of course, to move those sofas and cabinet, some muscles would be required…

Law looked over his children—Luffy jumping on the piled up cushions on the floor while Ace was rummaging through one of the opened boxes.

Nu-uh. Those two are definitely out of question. Seemed like he's the only muscles available at the moment and some reinforcements would be preferable.

A firm knocks to the door pulled his attention away and Law frowned slightly. Who in the right mind would pay a visit at times like this?

It was six knocks later that the surgeon finally pulled himself up and strode towards the door.

"Yes. Who is it?" Law said as he swung the door open. The rest of his words died in his mouth at the sight of his visitor.

Correction. Visitors.

Kidd and the unknown blond male. All stood tall, filling his doorway.

"Mister Eustass? What are you doing here?" Law asked, utterly startled with their visit. Although he did suspect they would eventually greet each other as neighbors, but the doctor certainly didn't anticipate it would be this early.

"Hey." Even with his jumbled emotions, Kidd still managed to greet the man. "It's nothing, really. It's just that Marco here feels left out so he wants to—yeoowwchhh!"

The rest of the speech was efficiently cut off when Marco stomped on Kidd's foot. Hard and punishing.

Law could only arch an eyebrow.

"Let's cut the chase." The blond started, bluntly ignoring the yowling redhead behind him. "I'm Marco, this guy's housemate."

"I…er…" The doctor eyed the redhead who was shooting dagger and laser beam towards Marco, slightly concerned. "I'm Trafalgar Law."

Once the pain subdued even by the tiniest, Kidd elbowed the blonds' shin. To his annoyance, it failed to wipe the smirk off the man. Wincing slightly, the redhead pushed himself up and huffed.

"Well, that's enough for introduction." Marco clapped his hands together. "Need any help? Quite lot of stuff you have there…"

Nothing came out from Law as he stared at the blond before him as though Marco had just offered him marijuana for lunch. But the doctor quickly cleared his brain and responded with a hesitant look.

"It's quiet alright. Its weekend and I don't want to bother with your day off. And um… I think I can manage on my own."

"On your own, huh? Are you sure?" Marco looked passed through his shoulder and slowly, Law followed the man gaze.

Out of dozens of boxes, only one had been opened so far… not to mention the furniture was still in disarray. And yet, two hours have elapsed with the total progress less than two percent.

Law's lips formed a thin, straight line and when he turned back towards Marco, the smirk on the man's face has extended by five millimeters.

"Alright, point taken." Feeling defeated, Law put up his hands in surrendering gesture. "Some extra muscles will be appreciated right now."

The doctor stepped back to let them in. "Sorry, it's still messy in here. Please watch your step."

As they were closing to the living area where fewer boxes were there, Law beckoned Luffy to come closer. Eyes curious as ever, the small child peeked from behind the couch for a few seconds before dashing towards his father at full speed…

"This is—oommpphh!"

… and head butted Law straight into his stomach.

Both Marco and Kidd winced. Judging by the way Law gasped and wheezed out a strained breath, they could pretty much guess the impact of the headbutt had on the doctor.

"Ouch… That's one hell of a headbutt." Marco whispered softly at the redhead.

There was nothing much could be done but to gaped and agreed.

"Luffy…" Voice strained, Law spoke to his second born who had his arms circled around his waist. "If you keep doing that, sooner or later daddy is going to suffer from internal injuries and maybe some damaged organs."

Not grasping the scientific terms, the said child only laughed and gurgled something unrecognizable before eyeing the visitors through the corner of his nut brown eyes. In contrast with Law's hooded eyes, the small boy eyes were big and luminous that screamed innocence and ingenuous.

Ignoring the feeling of his child trying to gnaw on his hip, the doctor's eyes landed on the first born who was in the middle of unpacking the kitchen's utensils.

"Ace."

No answer. Or rather, the boy opted to ignore the call.

"Ace." Law tried again, this time louder.

Even without looking, the boy knew his father was expecting him. Reluctantly, Ace put the frying pan down on the floor and made his way to the adults, legs heavy as a boulder.

"This is Ace and Luffy." Law introduced his children, placing a hand on Ace's shoulder to pull the boy closer to him. "Ace, Luffy, this is our neighbors. Mister Eustass and Mister Marco."

"Hey there." Marco greeted the boys in which Ace responded by giving an impassive look.

On Luffy's side however, the child tried to pronounce Kidd's name with such difficulty. "Usshhhtasss…"

"Nooo…" The doctor corrected his son. "It's Eustass, Luffy. Eustass." He said the name repeatedly, making sure Luffy pronounced the 's' part in a correct way.

Few unsuccessful attempts later, the child finally succeeded and grinned widely when Law gave a satisfied nod. When he turned his focus on Marco, the small child squealed excitedly.

"Marco!"

The said person gave a satisfied smirk to his housemate. "See? The kid likes me better."

Kidd could only roll his eyes, earning a small chuckle from the doctor.

While the children scampered away to resume whatever their activities were, Kidd took in his surroundings.

"So what's first? The boxes or the furniture?"

"We should clear this room a little bit from all these boxes or maybe stack them at one place because it's going to be helluva challenging to move the furniture around with the boxes under our feet." Marco said, eyeing for a good spot for the boxes to be gathered at.

Law nodded. "I have to agree with Mister Marco. And the only furniture that needs adjustments is here in the living room. The other room is already pretty much settled. I want to arrange them so the area will become more spacey, so Luffy wouldn't run into things too much when he plays around."

Both the new neighbors arched an eyebrow.

Once Law turned his head around, Kidd whispered softly to the blond. "Did he say 'too much'?"

"Yeah." Marco replied with another whisper. "That explains where the kid gets the skill to headbutt people."

If possible, Marco's comment only made the redhead's eyebrow to reach his hairline.

"I think some of the boxes can go to the kitchen, those with the 'kitchen' label. The others can be moved to the corner." Clearly unaware with his neighbor flabbergasted look, the doctor voiced out and started to lift the nearest box to him.

The other males followed suit, moving and shoving the boxes to the corner while Marco took the task of carrying the labeled boxes to the kitchen.

"By the way…" The redhead started as he stacked the box in his hand on top of another box. "Killer said sorry that he couldn't help with all this moving thingy since the workshop is opened on weekend too."

"There is no need for him to apologize, really. It's not like you are obligated to help me. But still, I really appreciate the help offered."

On his third box, Law tried to mimic what he has done to the other boxes but paused momentarily on his track. With furrowed brows, he stared at the box before him.

"Something's wrong?" Kidd came from behind him, slightly concerned when the doctor stopped moving and only gazed at the specific box on the floor before him.

"Odd…" The doctor muttered, once again slipping his arms around the box but didn't proceed further. "I don't remember this box being this heavy."

"Don't they all do?"

Law shook his head. "No, at least not this one." To emphasize his point, the ebony haired male pointed at the label that clearly written 'Luffy's Toys'. For sure his youngest son possessed a lot of toys, but he was almost certain they weren't that heavy even when all of them were gathered together. After all, he was the one who help the small child to pack them into the box.

"Did he sneak something else inside here…" Law muttered to himself, his tattooed finger fiddled with the cardboard as he tried to take a peek whatever inside.

In need to have a better look at the mentioned box, Kidd inched closer to the kneeling doctor and bent his upper body slightly and—

"RAAAWWRRRR!"

The box suddenly popped open like a jack-in-the-box. But instead of a clown that popped out, it was replaced by a five year old child, in the flesh.

Too startled with the jack-in-box surprise, Law practically leaped backward and head butted Kidd straight against the man's unprepared jaw. The impact somewhat managed to force the redhead backward a couple of inches before falling on his ass onto the cruel, cold floor.

They were wrong. The kid doesn't learn the headbutting skill from all those knocking things over activity.

He inherited it from his dad.

Enjoying the adults' chain of reaction, Luffy giggled and made a pawing motion as though he was some kind of lion. "Did I scare you, daddy?"

For a few second, Law could only gape at the 'clown' in front of him before laughing at the child's playful performance.

"You sure did." Still chuckling, the doctor crawled over to the box and slipped his hands under the child's arms to lift him out from the box. "What are you doing in there?"

"It's fun." Luffy circled his arms around his father's neck for a better leverage. Once Luffy was fully outside, Law peered inside the box only to find it almost empty except for a few car toys.

"Where're your other toys?" Law asked the child latched on his leg.

"In my room! Ace helped me move them." He answered excitedly, knowing that he had done a good deed of the day in helping out his father.

Law looked over at his son who was sitting on the step, eyes fixated on the console in his hands. For a moment, their eyes met before Ace tore his gaze away and focused back on his game.

Ace was still mad at him.

"Go to your brother." The father ushered the small child in which Luffy happily obliged and he quickly ran toward the freckled boy with his little feet. As clueless as he was, the child squeezed himself in between Ace's parted legs and peered at the console's screen. Much to Law's relieve, the first born didn't shove his little brother away, only resting his chin on top of Luffy's dark head.

"Did that startle you Mis—" Law cut short his question at the sight of Kidd still cringing on the floor. "I'm terribly sorry Mister Eustass! Did you get hurt?!"

At the realization that he might be the source of Kidd's painful state, the doctor quickly kneeled over the redhead and cupped his face with both hands.

"Are you alright? Here, let me take a look…" As his doctor's instinct was kicking in, Law wasted no time checking for irregularity in the eyes movements—one of the common symptom for concussion.

"Do you feel like vomiting? Or sleepy? Blurred vision?" The doctor continued to search for other symptoms as well as to check for his 'patient' mental awareness.

Too bad, the close proximity only made the situation worse. For Kidd at least. Because right now, he could clearly see every lines and contour of Law's face—thin, kissable lips. Deep, gray eyes that hold him with their intensity. The delicate jaw with dark, perfectly sculptured goatee. Not to mention that sinful voice that made his skin tingles all over his body. Oh how Kidd wished he could slap God a couple of time for creating something as sexy as this.

And a straight guy._ Focus!_

"I-I'm fine!" Hands scrambling to push the doctor away gently by his shoulders, Kidd managed to squeak out. "Just sore. That's all."

_Concussion aside, you can even give an instant heart attack if this continues_.

"Are you sure?" Law persisted.

"Yeah." The redhead replied, although his eyes were everywhere but on the sexy creature before him. Then, the amber orbs settled on the two boys.

The small child was ignoring the little scene as his attention was more on the console his brother was holding. Speaking of the big brother…

Obscured slight by his brother's wild strands, those light brown eyes has taken in every second of the scene similar like a lion studying an antelope while squatting in the high length grass.

In this case however, Kidd was obviously the antelope.

Yet, the redhead noticed the corner of Ace's lips slowly curled upward, forming a half smile that indicated smugness and self satisfaction. To Kidd, it was equivalent to a smirk.

Right now, the boy was either smirking at the whole incident or at Kidd's pathetic state.

The redhead could have bet it was the later one.

A feigned cough caused Kidd to almost leap backward a few meters like a real antelope. The perpetrator, who was leaning his side against the kitchen's entrance, had his eyes fixated on the duo.

"Wow." Marco remarked, straining to be casual. "We've been here for only less than an hour and someone is already getting injured? I don't even want to imagine who's going to die at the end of the day."

Kidd gave him a don't-fucking-start look.

Thank heaven the doctor was oblivious as ever. _And has a hard head too_.

"It's my fault actually. I accidentally hit Mister Eustass in the head." Law explained as helped Kidd to stand by offering a hand.

Marco snorted. "Kidd? Pfftt, you don't have to worry about that brute. He'd be still kicking alive even if you accidentally hit him with a mallet."

"You." Kidd pointed at the smirking blond.

In which Marco responded with, "Yes me?"

"How much will it take for you to shut up?"

"A penthouse at a beach and a pure breed dog." Marco answered smoothly like he was rehearsing a speech.

Until now, Kidd has never felt like kicking someone else's balls. But the sight of Law stifling a laugh melted his heart.

Not good. Time to get out of this.

"So," Kidd said, eyes travelled all over the room. "The furniture, right?"

"Yes, I think it's safe to move them around right now." The doctor nodded.

Kidd walked over to the sofas. "These are new. Is everthing in the house a brand new too?"

"Almost, but not everything. Some of the cabinets are from my old house."

Something cracked inside that voice changed and Kidd noticed it.

"It's better this way." The doctor slowly added, the weak smile on his face didn't quiet meet the eyes.

_Great, the situation is getting more awkward than it should be._

Without missing a beat, Marco, who became aware of the change in the atmosphere quickly butted in. "How do you want to arrange them?"

Almost immediately, the tense mood dispersed as Law was in his thinking mode, trying to figure out new placement for the furniture. Once the decision was made with the help of his neighbors' opinions, the adults quickly went to work. With a few adjustments and new position for the furniture, the room was transform. There were fewer obstructions, the furniture was tucked at appropriate spot and the room did look bigger.

And safer for Luffy's sake too.

From the furniture alteration, they moved on to unpacking all the stuffs from the boxes, except for personal belonging. During that time, they were glad that Luffy was taking a nap on the sofa, so they wouldn't have to worry about him running around and tripped over the scattered items on the floor although it did serve wonder on how the child could sleep with all the commotion around him.

Even Law didn't have the answer for that.

Marco was in middle of opening his third box when a hand suddenly tugged on his sleeve. Half expecting it was Law; the man was more than surprise to see it was Ace who's standing right next to him.

"This is mine." Poker faced, Ace pointed at the label 'Ace's Toys' on the box and went on to grab the box from Marco. "I'll do it myself."

Without so much waiting for Marco's respond, the boy swiftly walked away and climbed the stairs leading to his room while juggling the box in his hands.

"Sorry." Law said, walking closer to the blond from behind. "He's still upset with this moving decision."

"That's nomal." Marco shrugged. "Most kids will be upset because they're separated with their friends. He'll stop sulking once he makes friends at school."

"That's the problem actually. Ace is different from Luffy. He's…" A deep sigh from Law. "It takes time for him to warm up to people. He doesn't have many friends even back at his old school."

The blond gave a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it. There must one or two that's… well, compatible with him."

"I certainly hope so."

"Hey, doc." Kidd pointed at the box next to him. "What's in this box? There's no label."

Law looked over the pointed box with tentative eyes. There was at least five seconds of silence before Law finally responded. "Oh, you can leave that one, Mister Eustass. I'll sort it out later." His voice, laced with a slight bitterness, was masked with the cheerful fictitious façade.

Next to Law, Marco glanced at Kidd. For a split second, he noticed the upcoming frown on the redhead, before Kidd quickly pressed down any other emotions—interest, concern, perturb—and parked his face in neutral.

"Alright, then." Kidd shrugged and darted his eyes away.

Deep inside, the redhead really wanted to see whatever hidden in that box.

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It wasn't until late evening they finally managed to sort everything out. Well, almost. In between, Law had phoned up for a takeaway (his treat of course) to be delivered and the quick lunch was joined in by the two boys. At first, the doctor had a difficulty in waking up his snoozing son even after a few soft nudges. But when the word 'food' came out from his mouth, the child sprang up like a daffodil, almost headbutted Law in the chin.

Now that was amusing.

"Thanks for the lunch." Marco said once he and Kidd steeped outside the doorstep.

"It's the other way actually. It's me who should be thanking you for all your help." The doctor smiled in appreciation. "Thank you."

Kidd shrugged. "No sweat. 'Sides, we'll be going to see each other a lot after this anyway."

"Say thank you, Luffy." Law said softly at his second born in which the child responded by nestling his face into the side of his father's hip.

Seconds later, one of the nut brown eyes went to peek over the neighbors. "Thank you." Finally, Luffy murmured into Law's cargo pants and squirmed excitedly when Marco reached out his hand and ruffled the boy's untamed hair. Ace slowly came from behind the doctor and muttered a small 'thanks' without making an eye contact with his neighbors.

Even so, it was much better than being scowled at.

"Bye, bye!" Luffy waved at them and grinned from ear to ear when Kidd waved back at him.

"That's one energetic kid." Marco said the second they entered the front yard of their own house—a contemporary style two storey bungalow, painted in rich brown tones set against warm tan that beautifully emphasize the house architectural detail. The door's rich clay brown color highlighted the stone entryway while the flat roof and the simple lines drew attention to the exterior.

"Hm-mm." Distracted, the redhead barely heard his housemate.

"You like him."

At once, Kidd swiveled his head at the blond. In fact, it was too fast his neck ached.

"He's straight." Kidd tried to sound nonchalant.

Marco made a long 'o' sound. "You're not denying it."

A small shrugged was all his answer.

"So? What's your plan?"

"I don't have any." The redhead said incredulously. "Can't you see? He's grieving. He can barely mention his wife!"

"Alright, alright. No need to snap at me." Marco unlocked the front door with a small click and stepped inside. "So why the long face?"

"I don't know." Taking off his shoes, Kidd strode further into the kitchen with Marco following close behind. As expected, the house was Killer-free, assuming the blond was still in the workshop.

"Something's bothering me." Kidd continued as he filled the glass with tap water.

Which was true. Indeed, the death of his wife had left a huge impact on the man and Law was still cooping, that much Kidd understood. During the time they spent inside the doctor's house, Kidd tried to distinguish any kind of hint that could indicate the reason behind the man's decision to move into their town throughout small talks, but to his disappointment, he couldn't find any. And he was to chicken shit to ask directly with fear that he might touch another raw nerve again. In the end, Kidd had to deduce that it was simply due to Law's line of work in order to please his curiosity.

Then again, for some reason, a small sense of discomfort had left a stain on his heart like a small black dot on a milk white table cloth.

Apprehension fed like savage inside Eustass Kidd.

**-To be Continued-**

**A/N: There you go! Hope you guys enjoyed this one. Gods, I love Luffy in here XDD**

**p/s: I've been wanting to update my 'M' rated project but since there's a rumor that fanfic is putting down the 'M' rated stories, I've been scared shitless. Can someone confirm this? Is it true?**

**p/s/s: oh btw, does anyone out there has the doujinshi Kemono Cooking (KiddxLaw), the English translated one? I've been looking for it for ages and so far, there's only raw . **


	3. Black Sky, White Lies

**Chapter 3: Black Sky, White Lies**

**A/N: I can't be grateful enough for those who enjoys, reviews and supports this project. I mean, really. It a dark, sad sort of story, I'm amazed it still got followers and such. I'm touched *sniff*sniff***

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**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**

Like any other day, it was a familiar noise that brought Law's slumbering mind out of its unconsciousness and back into the real world. As the doctor slowly drifting back to the world of living, he barely heard the sound of soft footfalls on the other side of his bedroom door across the hallway and the sound was dampened even more thanks to the carpeted floor that seemed to do a very good job in soaking up the noise.

Morning like this is where a normal person would enjoy the view of vast grass coated by refreshing morning dew through the bedroom window while listening to birds singing their harmonic, cheerful melody.

But not for Law.

Because in his world, the sun that was supposed to add radiance to the dull sky doesn't seem to rise at all. In his world, the birds don't make twittering sound and sing a happy melody but scream and makes him wants to confine himself in bed instead. In his world, the flowers wither and the grass dries out, only waiting for the cold wind to pick up whatever crumbling pieces that is left. In his world, the morning breeze that carries the scent of green grass doesn't skim past his face, but hit him right in the stomach and suffocates him.

Smokey-gray eyes fluttered open and the orbs took a quick peek at the digital clock perched on the bedside table though they were slightly blurred due to the leftover Sandman's dust. After conforming the time, Law let his head to fall back onto the pillow and closed his eyes. Deep inside, he was frightened to open his eyes because the doctor knew if he does, it would only lead to a start of a new day.

Another day of grief, another day of fear, another day of feeling the pain.

While Law was trying to justify the need to wake up, he failed to notice the clicking sound of the door being open or the approaching footfall. Before the doctor could formulate one, something leaped onto his stomach, causing him to snap his eyes open in one faster-than possible moment only to have the image of grinning Luffy filled his vision.

"Daddy, wake up! We're going to be late for school!" Luffy's shrilling voice only made his father to scrunch his eyes shut even further. Clad in shark-printed tees and knee length, drawstring cargo shorts, the child smelled like a blueberry with a hint of honey, courtesy to Luffy's favorite shower gel.

Seeing that his father didn't make any indication that he would wake up anytime sooner, the raven-haired boy bounced on Law's stomach. "Up, up, uppity up!"

Left with no other choice, the man slowly pushed his body up into a sitting position using his elbows, his mind made a mental note to have a word with his youngest child about the habit of attacking his mid-section.

"I'm up, I'm up." Law cleared his throat slightly to make his voice less groggy. For few seconds, he stared at the child on his laps who's wearing the brightest expression as though an angel had sent the boy down to earth itself.

"Excited with your new school?"

"Yup!" Luffy beamed and nodded vigorously. "I'm going to make lots and lots of friends!"

The corner of his lips tugged up slightly as Law combed the excited child's hair with his fingers. "I know you will."

Which is true. There are plenty of words that could describe his youngest son—clumsy, naïve, cheerful, bouncy and list just go on.—but above all, Luffy is more like a sun, with a enigmatic power that could enlightened everything around him and his charm never fails to draw people into his orbital space. Yes that child sometimes can make people feels like pulling their hair out of the roots, but despite that, they just couldn't bring themselves to dislike Luffy.

"Where's your brother?" Law asked, tapping the tip of the boy's nose slightly.

"Kitchen." Luffy answered briefly, his small hands toying with Law's tattooed fingers.

"Why don't you wait for me downstairs with Ace? I'll be down in fifteen."

In respond to his father, Luffy climbed off the bed, his little feet made thumping noises as the child ran for the door. With a small yawn, Law wriggled himself free from the warmness of the comforter—a contemporary style of a yarn-dyed woven jacquard fabrics with a geometric circular thread design on a crisp black and white ground—and sat at the edge of the mattress. He glanced at the now empty bed, painful images shone in the forefront of his jumbled up mind.

This is usually when Law's eyes began to fill with tears. Although he knew today's pleasant weather would bring ray of sunshine to a lot of people, but for him, it would only bring another day filled with raindrops and dew.

A small breathy sigh escaped the man's parted lips as he cradled his face with his palms.

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"More, daddy! Put more bacon!" Perched on the kitchen's counter top, Luffy urged his father to lay more of the maple syrup bacon on one of the slices of bread.

"Hmm…" Law's nimble fingers quickly placed little extra bacon onto the bread as requested by his youngest child before he topped them with slices of tomato and shredded lettuce. He then sandwiched it with another slice of bread that already been layered with mayonnaise and cut the sandwiches in half diagonally—one set for Luffy and one set for Ace.

As the doctor rummaged through the lower cabinet to locate the children's lunch boxes, he took a quick glance at his first born child. Sullen and slightly aloof, Ace was seen having a one-side staring contest with his now empty bowl. Almost actually, since the freckled boy was poking the small bits of the leftover cereal with his metal spoon that were probably too mushy to be eaten. Ever since they had moved, Ace has barely spoken to him and it was too obvious the boy was keeping himself an arm length away. Or maybe two.

Law chewed his inner cheek as he gently placed the sandwiches into the lunchboxes. Today is the boys' first day at their new school, and the doctor was certainly against the idea of ruining the mood with a morning lecture. Even so, he still needed to have a word or two with his first born son because clearly Ace wouldn't be the one who would make the first move.

"Luffy… Don't move around too much." The doctor murmured after seeing the said child wriggled excitedly on the counter top. "You'll fall."

The wriggling ceased down almost immediately but the eager grin was still plastered on the child's face, his nut-brown eyes ogled at the packet of sweet potato chips in Law's hand and Luffy hummed happily after his father popped a couple chips into his mouth. A handful of the crunchy treats were packed together into the lunchbox along with the sandwich and half a dozen of gummy candy—sweet potatoes are filled with fiber and antioxidant while the gummy candy are made with fruit juice and contains daily value of Vitamin C.

Once the doctor closed the air-tight containers, he lifted Luffy off the counter only to place the small child onto the tiled floor. For few seconds, Luffy staggered a bit before regaining his balance and quickly tottering after Law.

"Ace, we're leaving." Law reminded his first born son as he put the lunchboxes into the boys' school bag packs.

Multiple invisible bubbles popped above Ace's head at hearing his father's voice. Without so much respond, the first born pushed the chair with the back of his knees as he stood up and padded to the sink, placing the used bowl and glass inside.

Law let out a barely there sigh. Well, at least Ace still acknowledged him.

Less than three minutes later, the trio made their way to the car with each children carrying their own respective bags and the man followed closely behind them.

"Hop in." Law ushered his second born child into the backseat in which Luffy had no trouble in complying, immediately jumping into the car with a swan dive. Before Ace could follow his brother, Law's placed his hand over the boy's shoulder, efficiently causing him to halt and gazed up at his father.

Instead of allowing his son to enter, the man took a seat inside the car so he would be on Ace's eye level while the boy stood before him, his long legs dangling out over the concrete pavement. Smokey grey locked with cognac brown.

"Ace, I know we're having a hard time right now and I know you don't like us moving here…" Their eyes were still locked but Ace still chose to be taciturn, letting Law to continue. "But this is the best for all of us."

"Why?" Finally the boy spoke up, keeping his voice low enough so Luffy wouldn't heard their conversation and continue hopping on the backseat.

"I don't understand. Why do we have to move?" The boy's eyes were thick with unsolved questions, only to be directed towards non-other than his father.

"One day, you will understand." Law murmured, eyes soft.

In disagreement with his father's reason, the freckled boy shook his head. "But I don't want to leave our old house. I like it there. We lived in that place for a long time with mum and—"

In a split second, Ace's eyes widened slightly when a sudden awareness hit the eight year old boy and he bit his lower lips, stalling.

"You don't like that place anymore…?" Carefully as he could, Ace directed the question to Law, his eyes searching. "Do you want to forget about mum—"

Faster than lighting, Law placed his fingers over his son's lips to prevent him from finishing his sentence, just in time to stop the dark storm from wrecking havoc on his fragile string of emotions.

"No, Ace. Please don't say that…" Even when his father was denying it, to the boy's eyes, Law clearly doubted his own words. "I swear it isn't like that… Its—it's not."

Unsure on how to react to the somber, melancholy mood, Ace lowered his gaze and let himself being pulled closer by his father until their foreheads met with each other. The bleak atmosphere was too overwhelming, the freckled boy felt like suffocating.

"We'll get through this. Together." The doctor whispered, still holding his first born son close to him. "I know we will."

The bleak air prolonged for quite a moment where nobody spoke a word. That is until the youngest of the three decided to cut through the tension by biting Law's arm playfully, clearly oblivious to the nerve wrecking mood. The father slowly released Ace and this time, pulled Luffy closer and kissed the child's forehead, ignoring the saliva stain on his work shirt.

"Alright," Law cleared his throat, smoothing down the flyaway kinks on Ace's dark head only to have them popped back out again in a matter of seconds. "We better hurry. Don't want to be late for your first day in the new school, do we?"

"School! School! New playground~" With a sing sang voice, Luffy's quickly leaped back further into the car, his legs kicking excitedly against the driver seat while Law fastened the seatbelt on the child. It was only after the man had stood up that Ace finally crawled into the car with a mood level that was far below than Luffy's animated one. Just when the doctor's fingers grazed the belt buckle, Ace quickly snatched it away from Law and fastened the seatbelt by himself, eyes was everywhere but on his father.

Taken back by Ace's behavior, Law took the manners as his son's own way to protest this whole ordeal and decided not to comment on it. For now at least. Instead, the doctor shut the door and his half-lidded eyes caught his own dimmed reflection on the car's window—an unhappy façade was staring back at him, anguished and marred with eyes that crying out for help but his lips are sealed shut by invisible thread.

And so again and again for each and every day, the man's quivering cries for help go unheard although his mind, body and spirit was slowly trampled by unknown force and left to bleed out on their own.

Law felt that somehow, somehow he was dying inside.

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As he cradled his left cheek with his hand, Kidd stared into gloomy remains of his stone cold coffee while his fingers tapping out a slow, measured rhythm on his desk—an elegant high style desk with a modern black and white color scheme that defines the workspace with style and professionalism— Files after files along with endless drawing plans scattered on the ash wood veneer finished table, some of the papers even spilled onto the carpeted floor. At the moment, the room itself gave an impression as though someone had just wrestled a thousand pound bear inside.

From his fingers, the redhead began to tap his shoes against desk's leg. It was an echo of his tension. In fact, that particular feeling along with other unfamiliar emotions have been developing inside him gradually ever since the arrival of his new neighbor last week.

Ah yes… Trafalgar Law. The core of Kidd's mish mashed emotions. A surgeon that had a look of a fallen angel, but beneath those undeniable charms, the redhead was almost certain Law was secretly hiding behind the careless fictitious façade, holding the gaze that Kidd couldn't understand. And yet, it was that dark skinned man's mysterious performance that draws the engineer in like a crazy vortex.

Just like the metaphor, Law's very much existence was making his emotions spin in circle.

Really, how is it possible for someone that he's known not more than a month to take so much of his inner space? Like this morning, instead of going straight for work, he spent ten minutes standing by the window, staring at his neighbor getting the boys into the car. From his vintage point, Kidd was able to watch the doctor having a one-to-one talk with his first born son. But he guessed the talk didn't end well judging by the sorrow that haunts Law's eyes as though his soul was bathed in a black sun ray, so dark it almost casted gloomy shadows all around him.

Kidd leaned back against his leather chair and rubbed his weary eyes with his knuckles, but cursed afterwards when the rubbing action had caused one of his contact lenses to slip out.

"Fuck!"

The redhead immediately inspected his hand and the front of his shirt for any sign of his runaway contact, but to no avail. With another silent curse, Kidd slowly slid off the chair and went down on his knees in hope to search for his missing lens on the carpeted floor. The hunting activity prolonged for another minute or two, but now with one slightly blurry eye, searching for a ten millimeter, clear lens was like searching a needle in a haystack.

Irritation starting to build inside Kidd, especially when there was a light, staccato tap on the door. Stood there by the door frame was the company's architect, Harpy Monet with an amused smile decorating her face, like always. As usual, her long, wavy, light green hair fell over the shoulders and cascaded her back so perfectly as though she had never woken up on a wrong side of the bed even once in her entire life.

"Nobody moves a shit!" Kidd warned the brown eyed woman, holding his hand up high in the air to emphasize his point. Raising her thin eyebrow, Monet remained there and leaned against the door as she observed the squatting redhead on the floor.

"I lost my contact." The engineer finally declared his reason.

In respond to Kidd's declaration, the architect chuckled and proceeded entering the room despite the man's earlier warning.

"It's no use, Kidd. Once you've lost your contact lens, you know it's gone for good. That's why I choose glasses instead." Monet tapped the side of her round spectacles as she took a seat herself.

Kidd grunted at the respond, eyes still scanning the floor, not bothering to look up at his co-worker. "You mean the thick glasses with circles pattern that makes you look like an old lady? Thanks, but no thanks."

"At least I'm not the one who's squatting on the floor, searching for a missing contact lens with one fuzzy eye."

The counter-attack only aggravated the man more and Kidd glared at the woman sitting contently at the other side of his desk.

"Just fetch me my damn glasses. It's in the bag." Given up with his fruitless search, the redhead sighed and finally stood up while watching Monet rummaged through his brief case before fishing out a small case containing his glasses. Instead of taking it, he removed the other counterpart of his contact lens from his eye with a simple flick of his forefinger and discarded it into the bin. There's no point in keeping only one contact lens anyway.

Still a tad annoyed, Kidd finally accepted the case from Monet's awaiting hand and took out his midnight black framed glasses. Once they were safely perched on the bridge of his nose, the man finally shifted his attention towards his 'guest' only to take in the image of smirking Monet.

"What?" Regardless the harsh tone, it failed to wipe off the smirk from the architect's face.

Monet tried her best to hide her widening smile, but the deepening scowl on Kidd's face only proved her failure. "Despite your deep hatred towards glasses, it actually looks good on you. Now we look like a matching pair."

At what Kidd took in as a mockery, he rolled his eyes and began to rearrange everything on his desk to make it appeared less… chaotic.

"I hate them. They make me look sophisticated and smart."

Before the green-haired woman could form any more smartass remark, Kidd quickly cut her off, his hands busy rolling up the plans. "Is that the new one?"

As the amber orbs zeroed on the rolled up plan perched on Monet's laps, the architect made an 'hmm—mm' sound, a sign of confirmation.

"I already modified the drawing a bit just like you asked for." She handed the drawing plan to the man in which Kidd accepted only after he had sat down on his own chair.

"Right…" The redhead unrolled the plan and skimmed over the drawing. "Because if I have to stick to the original one, the building gonna collapse in mere seconds."

Long fingers interlacing with each other only to be used to cradle her chin as Monet propped her elbows on the desk. "And so, I expect you to do the explaining about the changes to the client during the next meeting?"

In an almost comical manner, Kidd snapped his head forward. "What?! Oh hell to no!"

"Why not? The client has the right to know every update of the project and since you're the one who requested the design to be adjusted, it's only fair for you to tell him the reason."

The redhead made a pained look. "Well, our 'client' is a creepy guy. That's all I'm going to say. Did you see the way he handled the last meeting? It was a fiasco! He sat there in his high and almighty leather chair which probably costs more than we make in two months and with what I call his 'keep–this–shit–up–and–somebody's–gonna–die–soon' face. And I don't even have to tell you that he smiles too much. A crook kind of smile that should belongs to some sinister felon, not an elite tycoon. Then he fired that poor girl because she put two sugar cubes into the coffee instead of three. On the spot!"

Monet only chuckled at Kidd's ranting, the memory of the last meeting with the client gushed into her mind. It was exactly like her co-worker had described. On that day, just like that, she and Kidd witnessed a member of their notorious client's team break into hysterics for the sake of a coffee.

"And the security escorted the girl off the building." The architect added the earlier information.

"Exactly my point." Leaning more into his chair, Kidd was contemplating on whether he should pretend that he's deadly sick during the next meeting and let Monet do all the reasoning to the client.

"What's his name again? Flaming—or something?"

The brown orbs sparkled with hilarity. "Don Quixote Doflamingo. You should at least remember the names of our clients, Kidd."

Kidd shrugged his shoulders lazily. "Well, I prefer to memorize the amount of money they put into our pocket instead of their names. It helps brightens my shitty day."

"Still…" The drawl continued a bit longer before Monet finally continued. Now the eyebrow's up. "I'm surprise that you remember everything during that meeting even though you seemed to be preoccupied throughout the time."

Silence.

"I wonder if it has something to do with the new neighbor that had just moved in next to you..."

Of its own volition, Kidd felt the corner of his mouth twitched. How did the women get that brow even higher?

"You're not here just to hand me the drawing, are you?"

A simple head shake.

"What the hell woman? Are you sure architect is the right profession for you? Not a detective or paparazzi?"

By the time Kidd finished his sentence, Monet was smiling from ear to ear since the redhead's inability to deny just strengthened her suspicion.

"Fufufufu… A little birdie told me…"

An amused snort escaped the man's mouth as Kidd grabbed the water bottle off the far end of his desk. "Bird… Right. I forgot that harpy and birds are closely related."

Rather than retorting on the man's pun regarding her name, Monet opted to wait for Kidd to continue.

After taking a long drink, the redhead wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "It's Marco, isn't? Fucking has to be him. That bastard just doesn't know when to shut his mouth."

It was futile to contradict Kidd's earlier hypothesis, so the architect reckoned it was best to come out clean. "Hm—mm. Saw him at the café yesterday morning and he blurted it out without me asking."

At the moment, Kidd was in dilemma on whether to pinch the bridge of his nose or to snicker at the image of Marco finally turned up at his own workplace. Really, who'd thought that someone as laidback, a couch potato and a bully as Marco is actually an owner to a rather infamous café in the town? Especially when the man himself only makes himself apparent once in a blue moon, usually only when he wants to check the café's monthly income. Other than that, you'd find the said owner sitting in front of their television with a bowl of potato chips while watching soap operas or hanging out at the bar at night.

Damn, even the barista do more works than him. For some reason, Kidd held a deep condolence for the café's manager, Rob Lucci for running everything inside the café. Good thing Marco paid the man enough not to get himself throttled after the shits he put Lucci through.

Even so, the blond still pisses him off. How dare Marco yapping out about him like that? Last time the redhead checked, he wasn't a famous celebrity and Marco certainly wasn't a tabloid reporter. Damn Marco with his big mouth. Damn Monet for bringing it up.

"Well?" Curious as ever, Monet insisted to coax any sort of respond from her co-worker.

"Well what?"

Her eyes twinkled while she maintained a thrilled smile on her face. "When are you going to make the move?"

Now Kidd finally felt the urge to bang the woman's head into something flat and solid. Preferably the desk or the wall. But instead of giving in to the temptation, the redhead chose to bump the back of his own head against the chair.

"Why do you people always assume I'm going to make a move? Just because I threw the last guy down on the floor and ravished him doesn't mean I'm going to do the same thing to every guy I have my eyes on. And for the record, not only it happened almost a year ago, but it was that guy who made the first move on me and I just followed along. And no thanks to that, I'm labeled as a potential rapist by my own best friend."

"Oh my…" Monet made a genuine gasping sound. Now that's a first. "I thought it was the other way around."

Kidd bumped his head again, causing the chair to skid back by few centimeters. "Let me guess, you heard it from Marco too. Asshole just loves to exaggerate stuffs. And no, I'm not going to make a move on this one. At least, not for now."

"Really? Somehow I find it hard to believe. Fufufufufu…"

"Geez… Monet. You're saying it like I'm some kind of a man-eater. I do have self control and THAT drop dead gorgeous doctor is definitely off limit." Kidd shook his head, untamed red strands whipped across his forehead before the man slicked it back using his fingers. "One, he's straights with a family. Two, he'd just lost his wife. Three, he's still grieving. And four… he probably still scared to death of the world. And now you expect me to make a move?"

This time around, it was Monet's turn to shake her head. "When I said move… I didn't mean you have to flirt with him and tie him up to the bed. Just talk to him, befriend with him and maybe invite him and his kids to a dinner at your house."

"That achieves what, exactly?"

"Friendship. A good old fashioned friendship. Just because you're gay and he's straight, gorgeous doctor, that doesn't mean you can't be friends with him. Be there for him and trust me, Kidd… it never is a good thing to leave someone to grief alone." Monet said calmly. No more mischievous in her tone.

Then she leaned forward, locking her brown eyes with amber ones. "Despair and grief can do so many things to a man, Eustass Kidd."

The redhead chewed his lower lip. A habit that only resurfaced everytime he was in a thinking mode. With a small sigh, the man rolled up the newest drawing plan and stood up, both hands juggled with the plan and two more thick files he had snatched from the aluminum, fort glass bookcase.

"Where are you going?" Monet asked, her eyes followed the redhead who paced all over the room like a busy rabbit.

"I'm going to brief the team about the adjustment we made. Close the door when you leave."

She did have a point, Kidd thought miserably as he fumbled to his feet towards the door. The problem is, the redhead wasn't sure if such unsatisfactory ending would be enough for him.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXx**

Eleven o'clock in the night but the boy namely Ace had yet to hit the bed. Correction. To be precise, the said boy was indeed on his bed but disregard the concept of going to sleep like he was supposed to. Five more minutes, so the first born reminded himself as he stretched out while on his stomach, his little fingers drew unsymmetrical patterns on the picture clutched in his hands.

A family picture, taken a month before their mother passed away during Luffy's birthday party.

Every year, their family would celebrate each other birthday at home and this year was no exception. On that day, their mother had come home early from work in order to prepare the feast for Luffy's surprise birthday party. It might not be a real surprise actually given that his little brother (including him) had pretty much guessed about the upcoming party, but nevertheless, it was the intention that counts. Even his father applied a day off for that annual occasion and Ace clearly remembered that Law had to throw away his cellphone into the toilet bowl because the never ending calls from the hospital was starting to bug his father.

Of course, the doctor had to fish the poor cellphone out later that night since the device had caused a blockage to the toilet.

Under the dim light of his table lamp, Ace gazed longingly at the family photograph. In the picture, they sat together on the floor of the living room where Luffy was presenting his new birthday present—a train toy which Luffy had named it Puffing Tom. Overall, they all looked silly in there with multicolor glitters covered their heads and the cream from the cake had miraculously found its way to Tashigi's left cheek and glasses. The culprit was non-other than him of course as he had managed to smear the cream on his mother's face exactly three seconds before the camera snapped their picture. Perched on Law's laps, Luffy was in no better condition. Puffing Tom was the only thing that was cream and glitter free while Luffy, not only swathed by those two particular items (that goes without saying), a couple of jellybeans was seen stuck on his little brother's hair. Their father on the hand, in Ace's opinion, looked the silliest of them all. Courtesy from their mother, a red ribbon was tied around Law's head with the butterfly knot positioned on top of his crown.

Without doubt, that was one of the happiest moments in his life.

The more Ace stared at the picture, the more the corner of his mouth tugged upward as the memory resurfaced. But as he dug deeper, ever so slowly his entire face changed from hilarity to sadness to hurt.

Eight years he kept their mother on sight. Now all Ace could do was hold the memories they had together tight in his heart.

Before the boy could relish any more of the memories, the barely jiggling sound of his room doorknob pulled his mind away from the picture and back to the present time. In mere two seconds, Ace somewhat managed to turn the table lamp off and slid the picture under his pillow before he quickly turned to his side and pretended to be asleep. Soon enough, the door was opened slowly, allowing a small amount of light from the hallway to sneak inside, illuminating his previously jet-black room just now.

Ace scrunched his eyes further since he could tell it was his father who had entered his room judging by the heavy footfall. He sensed the mattress behind him shifted under the doctor's weight and the freckled boy almost gave out his little act when he felt Law's fingers combing through his locks.

"Ace, I know you're still awake…"

Too bad the said boy had forgotten that his father is a doctor. Even the irregular breathing intervals were more than enough for Law to tell that his son has yet to enter some La-La land.

Unyielding as ever, Ace refused to acknowledge his defeat and carried on with his silent treatment and it was truly a luck that he was facing away from his father. Had his father sitting in front of him, Law would definitely notice that his eyes were in a constant battle to withhold the tears of missing their mother.

The stillness in the room made Law's heart went numb. In the darkness, the father of two felt like his heart was in a cage, overwhelmed with stress sorrow and sadness. Through the window, the doctor peered into the endless night and fought the urge to howl at the unwavering moon. By now, the clouds and winds were no longer there, only to be replaced by the witness of the sky along, staring down back at him.

There was a crisp chill in the air as Law leaned down and rested his head against Ace's much smaller shoulder.

"I'm sorry." Law whispered into the clothed skin of his son, pulling the stiff body into a tight embrace.

"I'm so sorry."

Over and over, Ace heard his father uttered the three letter words, unable to notice Law's drip-drop moans of despair.

**-To be Continued-**

**A/N: Pheww… This is one hell of a dark chapter. Even moi felt suffocated while typing. Anyway, I know a lot of you are you going to ask 'who's that guy that got thrown and ravished by Kidd?!', so my answer is no one. Crap, what I mean is I didn't even decide who that guy might be. So that's equivalent to nobody, right? **

… **right? **


	4. In That House, a Glass Has Shattered

**Chapter 4: In That House, a Glass Has Shattered **

**A/N: My first warning is that this is AGAIN, a dark chapter. So I REALLY do think you guys should NOT read it in class. Few people had cried during class because of previous chapter and I was like 'Naaannnniiiii?!' Please children, pay attention to your dear teacher in front *snickering*. So anyway, some of the readers have been wondering about Luffy's lack of sensitivity and Ace's cold shoulder attitude towards Law. So this chapter is written mainly on the children's P.O.V for readers to have a better grasp on their true feeling *sobbing*. Do enjoy!**

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**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoo **

Days passed by so fast. For Kidd, everything looked as if it happened yesterday, like a dream almost. From his first meeting with Law, to the day they became neighbors and finally to the part where he went to the doctor's house together with Marco.

Funny how time could fly this quick.

Day after day, the redhead would see his neighbor in the morning shepherding his children to the car and one more time in the evening when Law returned from work. During that particular moment, Kidd usually would catch him standing alone in the front yard as he watched the dusk begin. Once in a while the breeze would brush his dark strands across his eyes and Law would simply reach up and rake them all back with his slim fingers. Kidd usually brought to a halt of his staring almost immediately when the thought of about running his fingers through his neighbor's hair began.

Sometimes they exchanged a small smile and a simple greeting of 'morning', probably due to the courtesy of being neighbors and all, but that's it.

Weekend quality moment seemed never to exist in his dictionary because Law was even on duty on those days. It was almost comical and sweet to see his youngest pajama wearing child latched on his legs almost to refuse his father's departure, at the same time trying to drag Law back into the house with all of his effort. But with much smaller body and strength, his attempt was met with so little success and ended up getting scooped up by his father. The man would hug the small body close to the chest and nuzzled his face into the child's dark hair. Only then, the child would calm down and let himself being carried back into the house with less fuss.

As for the first born son, Law would kneel down to bring himself on the same level as the boy's and brought his son closer until their foreheads met with each others. An act which Kidd found rather intriguing, as though the doctor was trying to connect with his first born son even if the said boy hold a distant gaze. They stayed in that position in silence for a minute or two before Law finally got up and proceeded to leave the household.

Afterward, everything got repeated. Acts of routine without a slightest disturbance. At least, Kidd would like to think that.

At least, not until recently where the routines of Law's household began to shift.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx Morning XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx**

Ten minutes.

That was the amount of time that has passed since little Luffy's been rummaging his drawers. Alas, the same went for Ace who has been spending the same quantity of period standing by the doorway of his little brother's room, arms crossed over his chest while he tapped his socked feet against the floor. A clear evidence of his exasperation.

Finally, the eight year old boy snapped. "Hurry up, Luffy! You have plenty of T-shirts, just pick one already!"

Trepidation began to gnaw the child's tummy at hearing his brother's bark, so he sped up the hunting process by stuffing his face further into the second drawer.

"But I can't find my favorite shirt!" Luffy's voice was muffled by the bundle of clothes, frustrated that despite the fact he'd practically swam into his own drawers, his favorite shirt has yet to be seen.

An irritated huff escaped his mouth as Ace stalked towards his brother who was currently having his rear end up high in the air. Like a hawk's eyes, the freckled boy skimmed through both two drawers at once and those gleaming cognac-brown orbs zeroed in at the far end of the third drawer when Ace spotted a familiar yellow fabric hiding underneath dozens of Luffy's underwear. Ace snatched the t-shirt with a small frown and glared at the top in his hand. _How in the world did you get in there?_

"Here." Ace thrust the top into Luffy's unprepared hands—a yellow, long sleeve top featuring a monkey graphic print design at the front.

In contrast with his brother's irritated scowl, a rather large grin plastered on Luffy's face as he flapped his favorite top right in front of him, efficiently blocking Ace's dagger glare from boring a hole through his head.

"You found it!" The child cheered and finally put the shirt on, wriggling his arms around as he did so. Once the hem of the top passed through his tummy, Luffy quickly dashed out of the room only to make a stop right in front of his father's room. Just when his fingers brushed the doorknob, Ace's voice cut through whatever he had in mind.

"Don't Luffy. Dad's still sleeping, don't bother him." Ace said. There was neither irritation nor anger laced in his voice, but at the same time, there was no tiniest room for argument.

Luffy corked his head to the side. "Sleeping? But what about school? Are we going to walk today too?"

"Of course we'll walk." Hands rest on either side of his hips; Ace stood right in front of Luffy and stared down at his brother who was a head shorter than him. "It's not like we can fly."

For a moment or two, Luffy puckered his lips. Disappointment was apparent on his face. But before long, the child beamed at his older brother, startling Ace a tad.

"But one day I'm going to learn how to fly! Then I'm going to touch the fluffy clouds and ride the rainbow—"

"The breakfast is going to run if you don't hurry up, Luffy." As quickly as possible, the eight years old interrupted his brother. If he didn't, Luffy would definitely going on and on about it until they reaches their school.

Alarmed with his brother words of warnings, those luminous orbs went larger if possible. "The food's running away?!"

Just like that, Luffy scampered away and went straight for the kitchen, terrified that the food might really grow legs and does a 100m dash. Ace let his gaze to linger on the spot where his brother was last seen before reaching for the doorknob of Law's room. With a simple flick of his wrist, a 'click' sound was heard indicating the door had been unlocked and Ace leaned his weight ever so slightly to ease it open. Despite the sun was already up, the room was dark with the help of thick blind that was drawn down. Only thin shafts of light were able to pierce through and draped over his father's sleeping form. None of them however, fell on the doctor's face.

Like a guilty thing, the boy crept at earliest morning into the room. His feet didn't as much create a sound impact as Ace shuffled closer to the slumbering figure of his father, only stopping when he was half a meter away. On his back, the thick comforter was drawn up to the man's chest, one of his arms resting on the stomach while the other was flung over his forehead. The distinctive dark ring outlined his eyes and Ace remembered his father once told him that he had them ever since he was at his age and never left him ever since. Law called it 'natural eye makeup', his mother named it mysterious eyes, his little brother labeled them as panda eyes and him? Well, Ace has always thought they suit his father in some way or another. Even so, the first born noticed those dark shades were not only getting thicker, but more intense ever since they've lost their mother.

Ace closed their distant only by few inches; cognac-brown eyes never left the man. Short raven hair stuck up in all direction over the pillow, his father's face was passive and his breathing was barely there. Law was very still in his sleep that Ace couldn't help but to maneuver his body slightly over his father's and pressed his ear with the smallest amount of pressure he could muster against Law's chest, in order to listen to the man's heartbeat. Everything was carried out with delicate movements and a sigh of relief escaped his mouth at hearing the familiar beating sound—thump, thump, thump. Satisfied with the steady, even rhythm, the boy straightened his body back. His hands were twitching to nudge his father, to wake him up, to cuddle him and bid him goodbye before they leave the house for school. But just when his fingers grazed Law's shoulder, Ace quickly wrenched back and brought the fisted hand to his chest.

Then without warning, the boy's sight suddenly became blurred and there was this numb feeling regarding his surroundings. He reached up and swapped his tall finger across the skin just below his eyes only to discover it was wet with tears. Idle tears. Unable to act, Ace dimly wondered if that was the tears that from the depth of some divine heartache, rose from the heart and then gathered to the eyes.

No, he can't be seen like this. Not in this weak state and certainly not by his brother. Using his sleeves, the boy wiped them across his eyes to dry out any evidence that cradled the pain of desolation.

Fingers on the doorknob, the boy took a fleeting gaze over his sleeping father before closing the door behind him.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXxXxxxxxXxXxXxXxXxxx**

In the kitchen, Luffy has just finished polishing the last remaining of his cereal when his brother strolled in. Dark and luminous, the child's eyes followed his brother's figure pacing across the room while he sipped on his chocolate milk. As he did so, Ace opened the door of the fridge and took out two containers, each labeled their names—Luffy on the red and Ace on the blue container—and filled with what supposed to be their lunch. Brilliance is something that Ace doesn't need to possess in order to guess that the lunches were prepared around 3 o'clock in the morning, right after his father had returned from work. The thrumming sound of the car, the beeping noise of the house alarm, the clattering in the kitchen—all of them are the telltale of Law's return, more than enough to wake the perceptive eight year old up from his not-so deep slumber.

Left hand went to close the fridge back, Ace lifted the containers high up in the air in order to search for the 'microwave safe' label on the bottom. It didn't take long for his brown eyes to spot the described label and once he confirmed it, the first born placed one of the containers inside the microwave, set the timer and waited. While waiting for the food to warm up, Ace went back to refrigerator, this time eyes fixated on the vegetables and fruits compartment.

"Which one do you want, Luffy? Strawberry or grapes?" Asked the first born without looking at his brother, keeping in mind about Law's words that they should consume at least a cup of fruits everyday.

"Umm…." Mouth still munching on the whole-grain muffin, the younger of the two pondered for a while before giving out his answer. "Grapes."

Ace snatched two bunches of grapes after popping a couple of the fruiting berry into his mouth and went back to the microwave.

'Ding.'

As if on cue, the first round of the re-heating process had finished and the freckled boy repeated the procedures with the second container. Done that, Ace placed the grapes along with some buttered crackers into their lunchboxes. Step by step, everything was done in a precise conduct as though they were programmed as such.

"Let's go, Luffy." Snatching the last muffin from the plate, Ace urged his brother and hauled his bagpack after ensuring everything was packed in—books, stationeries, crayons for today's art class, lunchbox and a water bottle.

Together they departed from the house side by side. When they reached the sidewalk, Ace paused on his track and glanced back at the house. Beneath the vibrant, dazzling sun, the house appeared darker as though thick clouds were drinking every last radiant yellow of light. The fierce beam struck through the world, in everyone eyes, but it didn't feel like it shone upon their home because the silent sane sunrays somehow couldn't break through the daunting clouds of despair.

From outsider's point of view, the boy was holding a cold gaze that bore no attachment towards anything in this world. None of them, however, seemed to notice the unseen tears trickling down the boy's heart.

"Goodbye, dad."

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

_So it happened again_, Kidd kept the thought to himself as he sipped on his hazelnut coffee from his flask. Although his hands were busy on dumping his satchel and jacket into the backseat, his eyes still managed to take a quick glance at the subjects of his bewilderment for the past couple of days—the five and eight year old boy.

Otherwise known as Luffy and Ace.

At the moment, the two mentioned boys were seen departing from their house, presumably, no, clearly making their way to school. Just the two of them, walking side by side while hauling their school bag pack.

Ah, that's right… The 'it' Kidd had just brought up just now actually refers to the changes of routines that have became apparent within his neighbor's household.

Like yesterday and the day before yesterday and even before that, the boys have been initiating a new routine of walking to the school on their own, minus Law on the scene. He knew the doctor wasn't away on a business trip since his car is still parked at the usual spot. To say he was slightly bothered was understatement. Hell, the redhead was curious to the boot. As a matter of fact, Kidd had noticed the man's lack of presence for a quite some times and it was enough to make his stomach churned and his nerves rattled. That much, he had to admit.

Fifteen more steps. Being an engineer, Kidd had no difficulty in calculating the amount of distance before the boys reached the front of their house and here he was, standing by his car with his mouth itching to speak with them. In a small part of his mind, there was a voice reprimanding him that other people's household was none of his business while the other counterpart said otherwise.

Five more steps.

Oh he gave in. The mystery won't be unsolved if he just stand there and sips on the damn java while dwelling on it. By allowing that statement to be his self motivation, Kidd paced across their lawn and by all means, closer to the children while he unconsciously tossed the rest of the coffee onto the flower bed with a hope that Marco didn't see it or noticed the coffee stain on the Lobularia 'Snow Globe Purple'—soft, pale purples flower that creates an avalanche-like scenery.

If such unfortunate event does happen, the older male would definitely deliver an instant-death right hook straight into his gut. Oh, the horror…

The sound of his leather, square toe boots scrapping against the concrete pavement must have been lurid enough to make the boys halted on their track and turned sideways towards him. At least, in Luffy's case. Since Ace had his black and white striped hoodie covering his head, Kidd couldn't really tell where the boy fixating his eyes on. He did hope the first born wasn't glaring at him though.

"Morning, you two." Kidd greeted the boys, his fingers readjusting his red tie which has small dog images printed all over it. Not only the color matches his hair, it creates a striking contrast when matched with the blue, Bengal stripe shirt that compliments his pale, alabaster skin.

"Good morning, Eustasshh!" A small measure of excitement was blooming all over Luffy even if the child had pronounced his name incorrectly once again. It was as though the child was born with a lisp condition, but Kidd hardly believed that was the issue.

Kidd gazed down at the child whose neck craned too much due to difference of their height. As the man looked into his eyes, he saw a perfect picture of innocence. "You can just call me Kidd." At least no one can get that wrong.

"Oh..! Kid… Kidd… Kiddy…" Luffy repeated the names over and over as if he was deciding which of the names sounded cooler when rolled in his tongue.

Uh-oh… This is harder than he thought… Quick, he needed to stop the kid before—

"Kiddo!"

Too late… It appeared that Luffy has decided what name suited him the best. Drat. Who'd have guessed with only a small twist of a tongue could turn his already peculiar name into something sillier.

"Right..! So uh…" If he wanted to interrupt the child, this would be the perfect time, so the man thought. That is, if he doesn't want to be stuck with much weirder nickname. Next to Luffy, the freckled boy didn't as much locking his eyes with him. Mouth munching on what appeared to be some sort of cake (it was really hard to tell), the boy has came to a decision that the sidewalk was far more interesting by rubbing the surface with the tip of his black field boot.

"… You're on your way to school huh? Which school do you go to?" This was probably the most awkward moment of Kidd's life, bearing in mind that he was probably in Ace's shit list.

"Sabaody…" After a long wait, the eight year old finally spoke as he swallowed down the last piece of muffin. He then patted his jeans to remove any leftover crumbs from his palms.

Kidd's mouth formed an 'o' shape of understanding. The mentioned school, Sabaody Elementary is the type of school that provides education for students in kindergarten through fifth grade and also the nearest one around. Law must have decided it was convenient to have his children attending the same school, not to mention it's close to their house. Well, Kidd couldn't agree more.

Now comes the tricky part. "Your dad's not with you today?" Even if Kidd tried his hardest to act normal and speak nonchalantly, he still couldn't stop himself from twirling the cup in his hand. The man knew he had somehow touched a raw nerve as soon as he noticed the change in Ace's body language—rigid and tense. It wasn't as perceptible as daylight, but it was there alright.

Lucky enough, his younger brother was oblivious to the core and opted to offer the redhead the answer after Ace didn't seem to make a move to do such. "Daddy's still sleeping."

At any other time, that kind of reply would make the redhead to nod in understanding. But not this time around, especially when it involved a five year old child. On top of that, that reply gave Kidd a strong unpleasant feeling. That sounded god awfully familiar doesn't it? He'd seen this kind of scenario in the television drama series where a small child believes that his mother is still sleeping whereas in reality, the mother has long dead and turned into unmoving corpse and yet the child waits and waits and—_stop it Kidd!_

"Erm…" Kidd took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. Five minutes has passed since he had consumed his coffee, and yet he didn't seem to be getting the benefit of caffeine. In any case, he needed to confirm the true definition behind the child's words. It pained him to admit this, but that could only be done by confronting the elder brother. Ace was older than Luffy, so by all means the level of his intelligence should be a few degrees higher, yes? Not that Kidd wanted to suggest that the small child is any less smart, but it was the simplicity that bothered the man. Anyway, it's just the basic principal to trust the elder's intuition.

"Right. By sleeping, did you mean he's resting? And breathing…" The man shifted his gaze awkwardly towards Ace. Hands to God, Kidd was beginning to wonder if those were the right words to start or they were confusing enough to make a five year old boy to gawk at him in puzzlement. But Kidd could tell it was in between right away when he saw Ace's eyebrows slowly knitting together.

"He's still alive." The freckled boy said in a hard voice. Eyebrows now scrunched as one, Ace face has contorted into what could have been deciphered as 'you're-are-a-retard' look.

How great. Not only was he already on the top of Ace's shit list, now he was officially in the boy's to-kill list as well.

The anxiety now replaced with embarrassment with a touch of relief. "Of course! I know that…" Enlisted in shit list without being aware of his neighbor's welfare OR being on top of shit and to-kill list while knowing that no one dies in that house. To tell the truth, Kidd wasn't sure which was worse.

"Come one. We'll be late." Ace decided to cut through the small tension and grabbed his brother's hand, curling his slightly longer fingers around Luffy's smaller ones.

"Have fun at school." Kidd somehow managed to offer the boys a small smile in a sensible neighbor kind of way. Of course, he was the one who held them up in the first place.

As they walked away, Luffy gave a happy wave towards the man. Kidd raised his hand and waved back awkwardly and from there, a never ending chain started as the child swayed his little hand with such vigor. A slight tug from Ace, it was then Luffy finally stopped and turned his head around.

"Everything's all right?"

Kidd tore his gaze away from the boys and saw Marco who was standing only a meter away from him. Now this is quite a shocker. One, the older man somewhat able to tip toe his way behind him without so much of a sound and two, this is probably the first in many years he's seen Marco wide and awake this early. Most of the time, the blond would be still cocooned inside the safe world of his multilayer blankets, only wakes up when he feels like it and yet, money still comes flying into his pockets. On Kidd's and Killer's side however, they don't have the luxury to sit around like a content cucumber and needs to work their asses off to earn their pay.

Marco proclaimed he has Lady Luck on his laps. Well, Kidd thinks the Lady Luck is a senile, retarded woman, no less.

"For a start," Kidd shrugged, knowing exactly the deeper meaning behind Marco's earlier question. "No one dies in that house. That far I know."

Bare footed, the blond shoved his right hand into the pocket of his navy mix, checked pajama bottom. "And..? How about the man of the house himself?"

"Hell if I know. It's hard to ask a five year old kid especially when the big brother thinks I'm the suspicious, retarded neighbor."

"Maybe he's just busy. He's a doctor, after all. Dying people don't go to the hospital only during the day. Don't worry too much." Marco tried to reassure the redhead and patted Kidd's shoulder lightly before he turned around and headed back to their house.

There was nothing else Kidd could do except for nodding his head in understatement.

Half-way towards the door, Marco spoke again, this time louder so the redhead could still hear his voice. "By the way, I saw what you did to my flower."

Kidd twitched and glanced over the blond cautiously only to see Marco didn't as much pause on his track and continued to walk slowly to the house while giving him his back. "Normally, I would punch you for that. But I don't want to ruin your new shirt so I'll settle with your punishment later."

At the same time the front door was shut, Kidd felt his heart just withered.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXxXxxxXxXxXxXx Noon XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxX**

By the time Law's mind decided to travel back from the slumber land and back into the world of reality, the sun had already flooded the entire house via windows, apart from his bedroom. As the bright lights peeked happily through the drapes, the doctor turned the alarm off and slowly opened his eyes with a small groan. Using only one elbow, the man propped his body sideway and stared at the digital clock sitting idly on the bedside table while waiting for his fuzzy vision to clear up.

Few minutes past twelve and yet, Law was already afraid to wake up and face the world again. The doctor fall back into the bedding, stretching his arms across the bed and his hands landed upon the empty space of the bed. Almost instantly, painful images shone before his eyes. They would emerge every single day and each time, he could do nothing but to let the fragments of memories to cloud his mind.

Every single day, Law could almost hear Tashigi's soft voice whispering the three special words of 'I love you' in his ear, her loud joyful laugh from when she was playing tag with Ace and Luffy and her fuming scold from when he had accidentally tossed her favorite floral appliqué camisole blouse into the tumble dryer where it ended up shrinking to two size smaller. Every single day Law could almost see her walking around the house as she was getting ready for work, her luminous, dark eyes that shone like a rare jewel whenever she was happy along with her blinding smile or even the sadness in her eyes when she stated that she had failed to protect another life that day. Every single day, Law could almost feel her breathing body molded against him as he wrapped his arms around her while he combed his fingers through the long, silky strands of his wife.

Oh the things he would do just to go back in time and change that awful fateful day because the doctor didn't know for how long he could face the world with an empty heart where there was no tear left for him to cry.

Life without Tashigi is like a night without the moon and stars—void and simply annulled.

Law tried to close his eyes to block out the memories and the pain but to no avail. They had long resided inside him, unmoving and relentless and the man knew the longer he stays on the bed, those feelings would only get intensified.

Even when the doctor felt there was no reason for him to get out of his bed and faces the cancerous sore of his numbing heart, Law still threw off the covers, sitting up and placed his barefoot on the carpeted floor. He rubbed the back of his neck a few times before standing up and headed straight to the bathroom to perform his usual not-so-morning routine—brush his teeth, wash his face and take a quick shower.

Fifteen minutes later, the doctor finally stepped out from the steaming bathroom and pulled on his clothes quickly—black trousers topped with a plum, long sleeved textured shirt—before walking to the mirror located next to the wardrobe. After he had tugged and straightened out the collar of his dress shirt, Law used his finger as a makeshift comb and ran them through his ebony hair lightly as the man didn't make any effort to style it. The necktie could wait later after he settles with breakfast and everything.

Law left the bedroom and entered the kitchen, not wasting time opening the refrigerator. Both lunchboxes had gone missing only to mean that the boys had brought their lunches to school. The kitchen island counter together with the sink both held the evidence of his children's breakfast due to unwashed dishes—muffins, cereal and chocolate milk. Then the doctor started a pot of coffee and while waiting for the coffee to brew, Law used the time to wash whatever dishes left in the sink before he started preparing for tonight's dinner.

That's correct. Tonight's dinner as in dinner for the boys only since Law knew he would be returning home late tonight again. Or in his case, it would most probably be three or four o'clock in the morning where the only things that welcomes him home were silence and a complete darkness. As soon as he gets home, the doctor would immediately head to the kitchen without changing his work attire. Make sure Luffy and Ace had eaten their shares of dinner, prepare for his children's tomorrow's lunch and occasionally breakfast and pack them carefully into the containers. Law would then tip toe his way to their bedrooms and gave each of his sons a goodnight kiss, even though he knew none of them would notice or heard him. Sometimes he would stay long enough to see Luffy mumbling incoherent in his sleep and the man would chuckle as the child unconsciously tried to gnaw on his tattooed fingers everytime he stroked the chubby cheeks.

Ace on the other hand, didn't make too much scenes while he was sleeping. Almost none to be precise. His wife once pointed out that Ace's sleeping habits are quite similar to him—still, super soft breathing patterns while laying on his back. The man was well aware that his son is still alive but he still couldn't stop himself from feeling the boy's heartbeats by placing his palm over Ace's small chest. That action made the first born twitched sometimes, but Law quickly patted his son's hips gently to lull him back to sleep.

After all that, the doctor would move to his own bedroom to retire. Then the cycle continued up until today. He sleeps half of his days away, leaves the house before the boys' school hours ends and works in the afternoon through the night for Law knew sleeps only avoids him once the sun goes down since that was the moment where the pain called grief usually visits him. To haunt him, to terrorize him endlessly. So instead of forcing himself to fall into the painful slumber, the doctor simply filled his time with work and tending patients until he was exhausted hence his later sleep would be more peaceful and less interrupted.

Law came around from his mid-day trance with a start after he felt a sharp pang in his forefinger. Looking down, the doctor saw blood started to well up from the man-made cut and he immediately jerked his injured hand away from the cut-up carrots before the blood could trickled down and stained the uncooked vegetable. A rare curse passed through the man's lips as Law reached out for the paper towel. Along the way, a drop or two of blood managed to land on the counter only to soil the surface. Once he had wrapped his wounded digit safely with the tissue, Law propped his body on the counter top and let his head to fall forward. How could he be this careless while handling a knife? Of course accidents are prone to occur when one's mind is drifting too far from the reality. At least, he never loses his concentration while tending his patients or else he might jeopardize their lives. Work is the only matter at the moment that could keep his mind together and away from the darkest nightmares and even from his sweetest, gentle dreams.

Little did Law realize, while grief is feeding on the overwhelming sadness, darkness itself slowly creeping closer. It craves nothing else but to coil around him, tightening its deadly grip, not stooping until the last breath of happiness is squeezed out.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX Late Evening XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx**

"Ace, when is daddy going to come home?" Little Luffy asked as he stood by the counter island. They had their dinner hours ago and now it was finally time for bed.

The older of the two didn't even turn around to face his brother, continuingly giving his back while his hands busy placing the dishes on the rack after he was done washing them.

"I don't know."

Biting on his inner cheek, Luffy gripped the hem of his owl printed, pajama top. "But daddy hasn't been reading me stories… Is he going to be late again?"

"I said I don't know, alright?!" Ace barked out his answer in frustration and placed the porcelain mug non-to-gently into the sink with a loud 'clack'. "Stop asking that every night, Luffy!"

Startled with his brother's outburst, the smaller boy twitched. Oh how little Luffy dearly longed for his father. The man's lack of presence was too much for the child to bear. On the outside, his eyes twinkling with happiness that brings other people to ease, yet inside, the boy is shedding tears of sadness as he misses his mommy and daddy. Almost all the time Luffy wears a big smile that brightened up the room, yet inside, the boy frowns in despair because he no longer could hear the sound of laughter and happiness in the house. Everyday the second born released a merry, childlike laughter that tickles people's heart but deep inside, Luffy cries out melodies of sorrow, desperately seeking attention like a five year old usually does.

Months ago they went to his father's workplace to visit her mother although he never understood why his mother was sleeping in a place where a lot of people wearing white long coats. On the very first day, his father hugged him and Ace most of the time as they watched her beautiful mother resting on the bed surrounded by weird looking machines. When asked, his daddy simply explained that their mother got hurt and the machines along with the doctors there are going to fix her all up. For the next few days, he waited patiently for his mommy to get better, to come home, to give him a squeaky clean bath, to play with him, to read him bedtime stories and many more. During that time, his daddy and Ace didn't eat or talk much and he had never seen his father looked so sad and solemn. It baffled him. **[1]**

Three days later, his father suddenly brought him back into the room where her mother's asleep and asked him to kiss her on the forehead. He did as he was told and later his daddy told him that their mother got hurt so badly and it's different with the ones he received when he falls on his knees or the red swell on his head when he bumps with something hard or anything he has experienced. Too bad that even the machines and the doctors couldn't fix it and because of that, her body has stopped working. His mommy could no longer walk or run, or eat or sleep anymore and she doesn't feel any pain. That time, even his daddy's voice sounded so foreign in his ears as though his father was chocking on something and although Ace had his back against him, he could see his brother's shoulders were shaking uncontrollably.

On that weekend, his father suddenly dressed him in white shirt, black pants along with a matching blazer, the exact same one as his father's and even Ace's. Even though he never liked the color black, his daddy insisted that black is a very nice color just for that day. Afterward, they went to an open space area that was much larger than the field in his school where a lot of square shaped stone could be seen above the ground. They weren't the only ones who wore black that day. Everyone else did. He recognized some of them like Shanks, Makino and Uncle Smokey and some of them he had never met before but the one thing they shared in common is that all of them looked sad and gloomy. Even Uncle Smokey didn't smoke that time and the usual frown was nowhere to be seen. His father was one of few people who gave a speech and said nice things about his mother and after it ended, they prayed together before everyone slowly left. What puzzled him more is when Uncle Smokey gave him and Ace a tight, rare hug and murmured something into Ace's ear.

He couldn't hear what Uncle Smokey had said but he saw his brother nodded at every word the man said.

Cradled in daddy's arms, his father then asked him and Ace to throw some pretty white roses onto the large, rectangular wooden box and with that, the three of them left the place as well. Following that day, he questioned his father where mommy went and when is she returning home. With a strangled voice, his daddy explained that since her body stopped working, she have to be buried in the ground and because of that, she can't come home anymore. He also told him that even when mommy isn't there with them, she will always continue to live inside their hearts along with those loves and remembers her. Though still slightly confused, he only nodded before asking if he could have the strawberry cake for afternoon snack.

When he took a peek into the kitchen minutes later, he saw his daddy crying in sadness by the sink. And since that, he had never asked the questions again.

At the brief recollections, Luffy felt his eyes filled with tears and his pupils floated like a fish as the child was overwhelmed by sadness. He didn't want his mother to be in his heart, he simply wanted her to be there with him.

Through the corner of his eyes, Ace took a glimpse at his brother who was in the verge of crying. Just now, his answer was a tad harsh but the boy couldn't help it. He was as sad as Luffy and the loneliness and silence inside the house only converted the feeling into a slight frustration and he couldn't stop from lashing out at everyone else, not only his brother.

Not bothering to dry his wet hands with the towel, the first born simply patted them against his pajama top and padded across the kitchen, passing Luffy in the process. Once Ace reached the kitchen entryway, he spun on his heels and faced the five year old child.

"Well? Are you coming or not?" Ace suddenly asked and stared at Luffy, waiting for any kind of respond.

As expected, the child had a hard time to comprehend the sudden question and could only furrow his brows in confusion.

"You said you want stories. Come one. I'll read them to you."

"Really?" Even with the teary eyes, excitement immediately replaced the gloomy aura around Luffy. "You will read them to me?"

"Of course." The older replied and stuck his chest out slightly. "I'm not like you, Luffy. I know how to read. Let's go." Without waiting for his brother, Ace started to walk away into the direction of their bedroom.

Rubbing his slightly bleary eyes with the back of his knuckle, Luffy quickly ran after his brother, a wide grin splitting his face into half. "Yaayy!"

Inside Luffy's room, the boys quickly flopped on the five year old bed—dinosaur bedding that features appliqués of dinosaurs on the sky blue background emphasized with a mitered plaid and check design in shades of navy blue—Out of nowhere, Luffy produced a medium thick book and placed it on his laps. Ace recognized the book very well and even memorized the stories inside like the back of his hand. In that book is the compilation of different stories, written by different authors and then completed with pictures on each pages. Their mother also used to read stories for him from that very book when he was about Luffy's age.

Ace slowly took the book from Luffy's laps only to place it on his and traced his fingers over the image of a cute looking bug tucked in inside his bed. The corner of his mouth slowly curled into a very rare smile.

"Which story do you want me to read?" The freckled boy flipped opens the first four pages and scanned over the tittles.

"Urrmm… I don't know…" Pursing his lips, Luffy copied his brother by looking over the content. "Why don't you choose the story, Ace?"

"Well…" Cognac brown eyes skimmed over the tittles until they landed on the last four from bottom. "Let's pick this one. It's my favorite." Ace started flipping and once he reached the designated page, he shifted around to get himself comfortable and pulled the cover up until their hips.

"There was once a sheep-dog…" The eight year old began narrating the story, in his mid-tone, yet clear voice. The words were delivered beautifully, even the high and low in Ace's voice matched with the situations inside the story. If the character shouts, Ace would shout as well. If the character is angry, Ace's voice was hard as well. And when the bird in the story sings, Ace would sing too. He wasn't sure if he was singing the correct melody, but Luffy still thought his brother's singing voice is wonderful and the child really enjoyed how the harmonious tune reverberating throughout his room or even the whole house.

By the time the story ended, Luffy has started to feel drowsy. Yawn what he did as the child rubbed his tired eyes while Ace closed the book and placed it on the bedside table. On the same time he dove under the cover, the first born stood up and stretched out his body.

"Will you read me stories again for tomorrow, Ace?" Through his half lidded eyes, Luffy requested the older. There are a lot of other stories inside the book that has yet to be explored, and the child was eager for another one. Perhaps not tonight though, but on the other upcoming night.

"Sure." Ace felt his mouth moved without much thinking.

Similar to when Ace read him story, the child's face glowed in happiness but the yawn only dampened the expression. "Good night, Ace."

"Night, Luffy." The first born murmured his goodnight wish while his fingers reached for the switch to the turn the light off. Even so, the room wasn't engulfed by total darkness since the moon and stars shone brightly tonight and showered Luffy's bedroom with a pallid, silver light.

The sound of the door being closed shut seemed extremely loud in that quite house as though everything inside has withered and grew cold. All the lights and switches were turned off as well before Ace set the house alarm system. Law had showed him once and the boy faced no difficulty repeating the procedures and inserting the code. A single distinguished beeping noise indicated that the house security measures were completed.

Ace walked to the window and peered at the rain-soaked garden and the long unlovely street. In the stillness of the dark house, Ace has never felt a night so long or quiet.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx Night XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXx**

Eleven o'clock at night, Kidd stared at the neighboring home through the bay windows. In the chilly, star-bright air, the house has shuttered for slumber hours ago and yet, the parking lot remained empty. Because there are small children present in that house, the redhead had at least suspected the air would be merrier and constantly filled by voices with pitch rising. But none of that happened recently. Today was the same as yesterday. Instead of hearing noises of life, nothing seemed to be moving in the garden, nor a song from birds. The entire day stayed blank and lifeless in that house.

"Is it me or lately you are into stalking your own neighbor?" Killer's voice broke through the redhead's reverie. He had seen Kidd stood by the Mahogany window frame before he went to take a late shower and now that he was done, the redhead was still remained on the very same spot. Not even an inch he'd moved.

"Fuck of, darling." Kidd murmured dismissively, folding his arms across the chest as he leaned his weight to the side against the wood frame.

Rolling his eyes, the blond ignored the affront and continued rubbing his wet hair with a towel to remove the excess water. Fingers busy untangling some persistent knots in his hair, Killer walked over to the sofa and took a sit not far from Marco, his hands immediately reaching for the T.V remote control.

"I'm not surprised…" Marco, the oldest of the three muttered. As his eyes still fixated on the newspaper in his hands, he continued, "… if tomorrow he get caught crawling on the wall of his own neighbor's house."

The redhead acted as if he didn't hear Marco's attempted sarcasm and kept on staring at the subject of their so-not discussion. "It's already eleven." He muttered mostly to himself.

Even with a voice barely above whisper, Killer still could perceive what his housemate had just mumbled out. "Yeah. So?" There was nothing interesting enough being aired, so he turned off the television with a small disappointed sigh.

"And he's still not home."

From the newspaper, Marco shifted his gaze away and exchanged a look with Killer before focusing his attention back to the article, leaving it to the other male to do the responding. Earlier today when he had caught Kidd (not red handedly though) unconsciously trying to murder the flowers, he had guaranteed punishment for the redhead. Well, he has always been a man of his words. So just now he had announced Kidd's sentence in which the redhead had to weed the flowerbed by hand or garden tools only and water them every morning for a whole month. That ought to teach the younger some lesson.

"Trafalgar?" Killer suddenly spoke in respond to Kidd's unusual statement. Still, the blond could almost understand why it bothered the other so much. Kidd wasn't the only one who noticed their neighbor's lack of presence lately. Both he and Marco did as well. Only that, they kept reminding themselves it was probably due to the nature of Law's work. It was simply a self-reassurance to keep them from banging his neighbor's door at one o'clock in the morning to see if everything was alright. "Well… Maybe there are emergency cases in the hospital or something. We never know."

The only respond from the redhead was yet another mindless murmur. "What do you think those kids had for dinner..?"

"Uuhh…" Unsure on how to answer the question, the blue-eyed mechanic paused for a while. "I'm sure Trafalgar took care of their dinner before he leaves the house…"

Kidd sighed softly, not enjoying the disturbing feeling his stomach was giving him.

"I'm not sure if this will make you feel any better or worse…" Marco folded the newspaper and tossed it onto the coffee table before grabbing the forgotten cup of tea. "Law usually leave the house around one thirty and returns at three or sometimes four in the morning."

There was a slight quizzical look on Kidd's face, so the older decided to continue. "You're not the only nosy neighbor here."

The revelation certainly didn't help to calm down the tremor inside the redhead when he felt an uneasiness visage canopied his lurching heart. It nagged him and regardless of Kidd's best effort not to notice the disquiet sensation, like a mirror, it merely stared back at him.

**-To be Continued-**

**A/N: There are times when I feel like a royal shit for abusing the characters too much. But I couldn't help it. It's a love-hate thing. I love the way I could bend their character, but at the same time, I hate myself for the cruelty I'm committing. *quiver*quiver***

**[1] These five (or six) paragraphs are written entirely based on Luffy's P.O.V. So you might notice that the writing style suddenly dropped a few level and a little bit straight forward as expected from a five year old kid. **


	5. Sonnet To Evening

**Chapter 5: Sonnet to Evening**

**A/N: OMG. First of all, I'd like to apologize to ****ASLShanks**** since I've kinda promised to post this weeks ago. Sorry my dear! And of course, to all of you. I've just started working and these two months are crucial months of the year for the company I'm working at, I barely had enough break time and not to mention, time to write. Want to know what I did? I used my lunch hour to write (while munching on my lunch) whatever idea I had in mind into what I call 'author's scribbling notebook' and then type it down when I got home. Well, I can't exactly type my story into my pc at work when my boss's office is right FUCKING next to me. . So do excuse me if you find this chapter a little bit in chaos. *Sigh* Anyway, enjoy!**

**P/S: I'm really dying to update all my other stories especially the M-rated one. But it would be a total pandemonium if my colleague sees me writing the word 'cock' or 'blowjob' into my book, right? Dahahahahahahaha!**

* * *

**Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**

The sun was warm on his neck as Marco observed the flower garden—spikes of the feathery plums of red Astilbe, the purple Coneflower that gave away sophisticated aura, the overly sweet-scented Peonies and the creamy white Iceberg Rose, also known as the most dependable roses—Each of them bloomed aloft on rigid stems and together, they produced clusters of fragrance. Warm and gentle, the afternoon breeze caressed his cheeks softly. Even the multi-colour flowers appeared like butterfly wings in the gentle wind.

Not long ago, he had opened all the windows in their house to let the floral perfume in and permeated every corner of the rooms and every crevice in the wall. And now, here he was, stretching out on the dark bronze, rattan chaise recliner while enjoying the view of gorgeous blooms that filled a decent stretch of their front yard. On the slanted aluminium end table next to him was a plate of macaroons, each with different type of fillings—exploding lemon, chocolate, coconut, pistachio and raspberry.

Bathed in the afternoon tempered sun light, Marco sighed in contentment and took one of the sweet treats—the exploding lemon—rolling it in between his fingers before nibbling it down slowly. A long 'hmmmm' noise vibrated at the back of his throat as the blond savoured the unique taste of the cookie. The crunchy outer layer, the chewy centre and the lemony tang of the filling, all the flavours practically burst and flooded his taste buds. He was about to reach for another macaroon when Marco saw the familiar, upcoming silhouettes of his small neighbours. Well, those two are kiddies after all; they ought to be small, yeah?

The man paused, glancing over the sweet treats then back at the boys. Always on impulse (and nosy), Marco snatched few of the macaroons, stood up and strolled his way towards the children barefoot. Few meters from reaching his targets yet the boys hasn't notice his presence, so he made a low whistling sound to steal the children's attention. They paused on their track alright and a confused frown marred their faces, especially Ace.

"Welcome back boys." Still in his lazy wear—multicolour plaid woven pajama—Marco flashed out a relax type of smile towards the boys as he stood less than a meter away. "How's school today?"

"It's fun!" As expected, Luffy was the one who answered the blond excitedly. "We played hide and seek, drew pictures and made sea in bottles!"

Chuckling at the child's enthusiasm, Marco raised an eyebrow. "Sea in bottles? How? You can't squeeze the big ocean into a small bottle."

"We can!" The child countered and quickly rummaged through his bagpack for his newly made treasures. Seconds later, he brought it out for Marco to see. "See! I brought some waves home."

In need for a better look, Marco bent down and to see the item dangled in between Luffy's small fingers. Without doubt, he really was seeing ocean in front of him. The item, in which turned out to be a small 50-ml glass bottle was filled with water and some sort of blue oil. He deduced that a food colouring (blue of course) was used to turn the oil into the artificial sea and together with the fish shaped glitters, underwater scenery was created inside a small, simple bottle.

"Wow, you're right." Using his finger, the man tapped the bottle lightly, making the 'sea' inside to slosh around. "That's a beautiful sea you've got there in your hand."

"Here!" Luffy thrust forward the bottle, causing Marco to inch back slightly so it wouldn't hit his nose. "You can have this."

From the bottle, the man shifted his gaze to the grinning child. "Really? You're giving it to me?"

"Yup!" Replied the second born, enjoying the pleased look on Marco's face. Back in the kindy, he made a total four 'oceans'—each for his father, Ace and himself with one extra—and seeing how his neighbour seemed to like the sea filled bottle, Luffy didn't mind giving it to him.

Marco watched as the boy placed the small bottle on his opened palm before curling his fingers around the cute gift. Smiling lightly, he ruffled Luffy's hair and the five year old laughed childishly at the treatment.

"Thanks. I'll definitely treasure this and put it in a safe place."

Then he finally turned to the older brother and Ace couldn't help from twitching under Marco's intense gaze. He knew the man was expecting his answer this time, if the raising eyebrow was any indication.

Reluctantly, the eight year old responded with a small huff and a shrug. "School's okay." In reply to Marco's scrutinizing stare, Ace too, began to examine the man by running his half lidded eyes up and down the tall figure. His conclusion? Everything about his neighbour was out of place. To him being in there at that time around, his sleeping attire and down to his laid back demeanour. Isn't adult supposed to be working during this time?

"That's good to hear." The blond replied, highly amused with Ace's attempt to match his bold staring. To hide the upcoming smirk, Marco nibbled on the macaroon he had brought him and it was then the man noticed Luffy's eyes was zeroing in on his hand. Or to be exact, on the sweet treat in his hand.

"You want some?"

Seeing how the child nodded vigorously to express his wish made Marco to release yet another chuckle before bringing the macaroon closer and nudged the child's lips with it. "Open wide."

"Aaaahhhhuummphh—" Perfect raw of small teeth was exposed before Luffy chomped down the sweat treat, not bothered being hand-fed by Marco. Almost instantly, the small boy was swooned when the sugary macaroon melted and started to stick a little bit on his teeth.

"Hhhhmmmm!" Through a mouthful, Luffy expressed his contentment over the cookie by making a purring sound. As the five year old continued chewing, Marco then looked over to Ace and received yet another twitch from the said boy.

"I don't want any of—uummpphh!" The rest of his declination was cut off when Marco stuffed another piece of macaroon into the boy's mouth without so much of his consent. A rather deep scowl was on its way, ready to be delivered. But when the sweet indulgence broke under the pressure that came from his jaws, Ace halted momentarily and focused on the melting macaroon inside his mouth. Crisp on the outside, the boy noted the inside spoke otherwise—chewy and dense—. Another crush and the rich coconut filling instantly assaulted his taste buds and Ace almost purred. _Almost_ though, since the boy somewhat managed to resist the contentment sound from sliding out of his throat. Up until now, he had sampled many of these macaroons thingy. Different colour, different fillings but this one was probably the most scrumptious by far.

No scowl decorated his boyish feature and as for the purr, Ace had suppressed it from becoming too obvious. But despite his best effort not to show any type of flattering gesture, he still couldn't stop himself from mumbling, "It's good."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Ace went rigid, knowing that he had unconsciously complimented the sweet treat given by Marco. He took a quick peek on the towering man and ended up hating his mouth when he saw the widening, triumph-like smirk plastered on the man's face. On the outside, he flashed out a rather annoyed look towards his smirking neighbour, but on the side however, he couldn't resist from savouring the tasty macaroon and wanting more.

"It is, right?" Marco referred to the macaroon. Just then, an invisible light bulb flickered brilliantly on top of his head.

"Wait here."

The blond jogged his way towards his 'lazy' chair only to snatch the macaroon filled plate and returned back to the children in less than thirty seconds. The second he was back to his previous position, Marco handed the plate to the boys and received a rather enormous grin from Luffy and a startled look from Ace. "Take this and you can have them as your afternoon snack."

If excitement could be measured, Luffy's was probably off-chart. The child didn't even bother to hide it, boldly ogling the snacks and licking his lips in anticipation.

"Really, really, REALLY? We can have them all?" Eyes twinkled almost like a star, Luffy questioned the man.

"Hm-hm." Marco nodded. "Really, really, REALLY."

For a moment or two, Ace looked wary, but nevertheless accepted the plate from his neighbour after seeing how happy his brother was at the moment. There was no way Luffy could say 'no' to food even to a stranger and that's worries him sometimes. Who knows how many creeps lurking out there trying to take advantage of Luffy's innocence and his weakness against food. But Marco wasn't a total stranger. He was their neighbour and therefore, Ace was willing to trust the man and accept his kindness.

Even if the blond annoyed the hell out of him.

With glee, Luffy took one of the macaroons and held it high, almost mimicking to Marco's earlier action. "Say 'aaaaaaahhhhh'." Not surprisingly, due to the difference of their height, the sweet treat was nowhere near to the man even when Luffy was practically standing on tippy toes.

This time around, Marco could no longer resist himself from laughing at the child's antic. Everything about him was pure and all action was done on impulse without any superficial meaning. If he was born as a woman, he would be giving Luffy an instant death squeeze by now. But sadly enough, he was a 100% man and therefore, the least he could do to convey his affection was stroking the child's head and agreed to be hand-fed by him. A total déjà-vu alright.

"Thanks." Ace muttered awkwardly after the blond had finished munching down the macaroon dangled in between Luffy's fingers. At that moment, he realized something. "Your plate..."

Marco paused. Rather than looking at the freckled boy and answering him, the man stared at the plate, mind racing. "Don't worry about it. You can return it later."

_Just another reason to talk to the boys. Marco, you're a genius~~_

"Oh..." The freckled boy mumbled his word of understanding.

Plate of scrumptious macaroon in his hands, Ace nodded and together with Luffy, they returned to their respective house. Marco stared at the receding backs of the children and dimly pondered when their next encounter would be.

Little did Marco know that he would be seeing the boys sooner than what he had expected.

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"I told you not to eat them, Luffy! You never listen to me!"

Frustration was surging through him as Ace stared down at his brother who's on the verge of tears. No, he would not let those teary eyes and puckered lips to get into him. Not this time. From Luffy, Ace then shifted his attention to the almost empty plates on the island counter that used to be filled with what supposed to be their dinner—spaghetti and meatballs with cornmeal-crusted nuggets

Correction. Luffy's dinner.

Just now Ace had just woken up from his evening nap only to witness a dismaying sight in the kitchen—empty plates save for the steamed broccoli and carrots—and even in his half-awaken state, it took less than a solid five seconds for the first born to deduce that Luffy had SNEAKILY eaten his dinner portion much too early than scheduled. At the moment, the day has barely reached 5:45 in the evening and he knew after one hour or so, Luffy would get all hungry again. Ace knew he should have placed those plates on a higher compartment in the refrigerator where Luffy could never reach them.

"I was hungry..." Luffy finally squeaked, eyes fixated on the floor to avoid Ace's burning gaze. Which was true, the hungry part that is. Half an hour after they had their evening snack—the macaroon and milk tea—the child then realized his tummy was still rumbling, begging to be fed. And seeing that his brother was in La-La land, Luffy had decided that it would mean no harm to have a bite or two of his dinner, just enough to sustain until their usual dinner time. That's when the problem began. From one bite, it then developed into two bites, then three, then four and by time the child realized it, he had almost polished his entire dinner portion apart from the vegetables. Luffy knew by then he was in a big trouble. Out of pure instinct, the five year old tried to hide in his closet but like always, Ace had no difficulty sniffing out his oh-no-so hideout. What worse is, the heavy scowl on his brother's face was more than enough to make the child almost curled into a small ball and hopefully, that would make Ace less angry.

Not a chance. Because Ace had dragged him out of his sacred place and now scolding him in the kitchen after forcing him to confess his mistake.

"I know you were! That's why I left those cupcakes inside the container on the counter. Why didn't you eat them, Luffy?" Enquired the eight year old boy with his finger pointing directly at the mentioned container sitting idly on the counter top, obviously untouched.

"There are cupcakes inside there?!"

Ace frowned slightly. Did he forget to tell Luffy about the cupcakes before he went for a quick nap? He knew Luffy wasn't feigning his shock, not that the younger was able to do it anyway. If that was the case here, then half of this ordeal was probably his fault and that somewhat made Ace felt a tad guilty.

"Now what are we—don't cry, Luffy! I hate cry babies!"

Almost instantly, Luffy sucked his lower lips and rubbed his eyes furiously to remove any evidence of his tears but to no avail. Drip after drip of clear of fluid managed to escape the corner of the child's eyes and trickled down his cheeks.

"I'm sorry Ace..."

Eyes closed, the eight year old boy willed himself to be patient. "Its okay, Luffy... I'm not mad anymore."

But now they were left with yet another problem which would be Luffy's dinner. Cooking was definitely not the boy's field of expertise and Ace doubted a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich would be sufficient enough to satisfy his brother's gluttonous tummy. Silence—aside from Luffy's sniffling—filled the entire kitchenette as the boy raked his brain, tweaking here and there. It wasn't two minutes later that Ace finally had came to a decision.

"Ace..?" The tear stained Luffy asked when the older suddenly ran upstairs. Inside his room, Ace grabbed a handful of his pocket money from the drawer, stuffed them into his pants pockets dashed back downstairs. By then, the five year old had already moved from his spot and waited for his brother in the living room, eyes followed closely as Ace scuttled around the house a bit before he finally made a stop right at the front hallway.

"You can have my dinner **ONLY** for tonight." As he slid his foot into his shoes, Ace mumbled and threw a small scowl towards his little brother to emphasize his point.

Luffy shuffled closer, still confused with the sudden arrangement. "What Ace going to eat tonight then? Where are you going?"

"Supermarket." That was the solution that Ace had come up with minutes ago. There, he could buy readymade, frozen meal like meat lasagne or bacon burger stuffed sandwiches and just cook them in the microwave. He knew the possibility for him to get caught in the dark was sky high, but there weren't many options left for him anyway. Not that he had any to begin with. His short term goal at the moment was quite simple and straight forward—run or maybe walks as fast as he could and then get back home without any detour.

"Can I come with you?"

A rather desperate sigh escaped his lips as Ace rolled his eyes. "Of course you'll come with me! I can't leave you alone here."

With Luffy's shorter legs, the eight year old boy doubted his brother could keep up with his pace but at the same time, he didn't fancy the idea of Luffy being home alone. His brother has caused too much crisis for the day and Ace simply didn't want any more bonuses to the list. And the five year old certainly didn't make his day anymore better when Luffy only stood there, unmoved.

"Well?! What are you waiting for?" Ace barked at seeing the smaller boy stood there like an electric pole. "Wash your face and change your shirt or I'll really leave you!"

After a startled yelp, it was then Luffy finally scampered away towards the stairs. That is, after the child had miraculously tripped over himself midair and planted his face into the carpeted floor.

This is where Ace felt his shoulders sagged in defeat.

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"Ace, wait for me!"

"Hurry up, Luffy!"

Kidd felt his brows fall into a very deep crease as he closed the front door of his car. He then tilted his head to the side so amber orbs could see past the car, the lines on his forehead only intensified at the sight of Ace and Luffy running (or at least in Luffy's case) on the sidewalk. As usual, a slight scowl adorned Ace's boyish face while the said boy was yelling something to his brother. Whatever it was, the redhead was almost certain it wasn't consolation words.

"Where are you going?" Kidd somewhat couldn't stop himself from mouthing that question as he strode closer to the boys. Much to Kidd's mild surprise, the children halted. To be honest, the man was half expecting to be disregarded, especially by Ace, but that wasn't situation at the moment. Well, Ace wasn't really giving a welcoming, warm smile but at least the boy didn't ignore him. Not completely though. But the displeased glower wasn't making his heart any brighter.

"Supermarket." Answered the boy as if that one simple syllable was enough to provide full explanation on their current situation.

And too bad for the boys that they were up against a nosy neighbour.

"Supermarket? Why?" _And why the hell is your brother look like he'd just cried his eyes out?_ Of course, Kidd wouldn't dare to ask that even when his eyes was making a fleeting gaze towards the red eyes and nosed Luffy. Clearly something had happened. Whether the situation fall under a serious category or not, the redhead decided not to speculate yet. At least, not until he hear them out.

Ace huffed in return. Irritation was written all over his face. What's up with these people? No, scratch that. What's the deal with their neighbours? First, it was Kidd. Then Marco stepped in. Now, it was back to Kidd's turn. As for Killer, Ace didn't even want to imagine when the lanky man decided to come into the picture. As it happens, the boy really didn't feel like giving up his precious time talking and explaining to Kidd, but judging by the man's determination look and body language, Ace just had this foreboding that the redhead wouldn't let them escape just like that.

Really... What a truly bothersome neighbours.

"I'm going to buy something for dinner." Somewhere at some part of his mind, Ace had this little imagination of Kidd nodding in comprehension and stepped aside for them to walk pass by. No such luck. Because right now, right in front of him, the redhead remained still without as much budging an inch from his spot with his eyebrows practically knitting together to express his confusion.

Just great. He had provided the man with an answer that only led to more questions.

"Dinner?" Oh Lord... He knew Ace must be rolling his eyes mentally at him, but his mouth just wouldn't stay sealed shut. If remembered correctly, he wasn't born with this level of curiosity but whenever he confronted the children, it just went sky high. Like there was no boundary at all. "I thought your dad already prepared them for you before he left the house."  
Alright, he wasn't certain about that statement himself but surely that was the case, yes? It was only logical and common sense for the doctor to at least not let his children starve at home.

... Right?

This time around, Ace didn't bother to hide his frustration and huffed harshly as though his neighbour was merely a pest and therefore, needed to be swept away as soon as possible.

"Luffy ate his dinner too early so I'm giving him mine tonight. Now we're off to buy my own dinner."

Uh... Oooh..! Kidd could almost hear his inner mind muttered those words of understanding.

"You guys gonna go now?" As he spoke, the redhead took a quick glance on his watch. Few minutes passed six and dusk, the darkest stage of the twilight in the evening would soon approach sooner than they could imagine. Via the corner of his eye, Kidd noticed the sun has begun to glide downward ever so slowly and bleed out the vestiges of the day.

The eight year old didn't answer the man verbally, only giving him the look that clearly said 'what else?'

"Come on, Luffy." Ace mumbled and began to side-step his neighbour, almost dismissingly. He was extremely annoyed, hungry and Kidd's 101 questions game was starting to get on his nerves. The only thin layer prevented him from hissing at the man was the tight squeeze of Luffy's fingers around his.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Pale hands mindlessly reached out for the boys shoulder and it wasn't three seconds later that Kidd realized what he had done. Beneath his palm, he felt the boy twitched before Ace twisted his head awkwardly to stare at the hand clasped on his shoulder.

Without delay, the engineer pulled his hand away as if Ace was going to bite his fingers any time soon. "Calm down for a sec."

Deep breathe in; Kidd tried to control his voice so it wouldn't quiver too much.

"Look, I'm going to start making dinner soon. So why don't you guys just eat at our place for tonight?" In all honesty, Kidd had no slightest idea why had he said that. They just came out of their own and the redhead began to get scared (almost) with his own suggestion. But damn to hell if he was going to back out now.

Kidd deepened his reason. "It's going to get dark and it might not be a good idea for you two to walk around, right?"

That and who knows what kind of creeps dwelling in the night. Law had lost his wife and for sure the doctor wouldn't appreciate having his kids missing in action.

It didn't surprise him the least when Ace shot him a weary look. "I'm not afraid of the dark."

"I know you don't. It's just..." A deep sigh. "It can be dangerous around here, okay?"

More calculative stares were thrown at him. Gosh, for an eight year old kid, Ace does think a lot, doesn't he? Not good. Bearing in mind that he was both in Ace's shit list and death list, it was only natural for the boy to decline his offer. Ace probably believed that being mauled by a mysterious six eyed creature is better than having to breathe the same air as him.

Similar to Ace, Kidd too fell into his own thinking mode—an intense one to be precise—for him to come up with some sort of a new strategy.

"There'll be mango pudding after dinner." Fuck! Of all the damn sweet things in this world, just why in the hell did he mention about mango pudding? But lucky enough, the redhead knew his effort wasn't for naught when he noticed the solemn look on Luffy's face immediately upgraded into an excited one.

Good God. Children would always be children after all.

"Pudding!" As Luffy's sniffled once more—hopefully for the last time— his eyes lit up. "Let's go, Ace!"

Previously half lidded eyes have now widened by a fraction at seeing Luffy's excited demeanour. For a few seconds Ace didn't say anything. His face didn't indicate whether he agreed or opposed Kidd's earlier invitation and the eerie silence was too long for the man's liking.

Ok. ...

"Alright..." Finally, the boy responded reluctantly after weighing his options, heart heavy as a boulder. Kidd had put his journey to a hold long enough for red-brown colours to hang on the sky and despite his earlier remark regarding his un-fear towards darkness, that doesn't imply that he fancies them. Not one bit. As much as he hated to admit it, the man's invitation was indeed tempting.

And thus, Ace had to admit his defeat for this round. But come to think of it, he had lost to his neighbour twice today, including the macaroon incident with Marco. For some reason, it pissed him off a bit.

On Kidd's side however, the man let out a breath he had been holding on until now. "Alright, good... So uh, why don't you guys clean yourself, grab your homework or whatever and do them at our place while you wait."

Ace nodded curtly, but otherwise began to walk back to their house to do everything mentioned.

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Confused and slightly amused, a pair of electric blue eyes stared at the sight bestowed before him. Right in the middle of their living room, Ace and Luffy were spotted sitting crossed legs on the floor, books and stationeries scattered on the coffee table. Both boys didn't seem to notice his presence—or they were ignoring him—and continued to engorge themselves with whatever they were working on at the moment. Close to them was Marco who's sitting on the couch and sipping on his soda nonchalantly as though having two children inside the house was an everyday basis.

Killer rubbed his eyes with his knuckles, hard enough that white spots began to appear behind his eyelids before opening them back again. Nope. It wasn't his imagination after all. Two small, living bundles were still inside the room. What's worse, the older blond literally ignored his harassed facade and kept on gluing his eyes on the night news broadcasted on the television.

As he tugged his hair band loose, Killer wanted nothing else but to snatch the soda can in Marco's hand, threw it somewhere far and pestered him about the irregularities in their house. But common sense kicked in and the blonde dimly fathomed how inappropriate would it be if he was to voice out his piece of mind whereas the subjects were closed by and note to mention, larger than life.

So without exchanging so much of a greeting with his housemate, Killer paced across the living room and headed towards the kitchen. One more step before he reached the kitchen's entryway, a wooden spatula greeted him. The cooking utensil was two inches from touching the tip of his nose.

"You. Shower. Now." Kidd scowled at the blond, disapproved was heavy on his face. The engineer was clad in his white, cherries printed apron that somewhat gave out a vintage feel and Killer noticed it was a brand new. Several emotions whirled inside the blonde, all battling for dominance—baffled with the children's appearance, annoyed with Marco's lack of respond and of course, amused with Kidd's choice of apron. In his eyes, the blond could almost see the ridiculous pose in his periphery especially with that waist pockets and the damn removable grosgrain bows that matches the colour of his hair.

Killer returned the scowl by rolling his eyes (his own manly version), ignoring the slightly awkward atmosphere. It was almost they were in the middle of a silly pantomime about a wife scolding her good for nothing husband—wait, did he just say husband? Why did he have to take the role of a good for nothing husband? If it was about anything useless around the house, then Marco would definitely fit the role. No one would argue with that statement.

"I've changed my clothes. See?" To emphasize his point, Killer tugged the collar of his petrol, slub polo shirt which he had changed into right after he had closed the garage.

"Still filthy. You're not allowed to enter until you smell like Marco's stupid flower garden."

"I heard that!" Marco shouted from the living room.

Huffing, Killer decided to let the trivial matter go but otherwise, still standing by the entryway. There's more crucial issue he should attend to. "So... about the kids. Anything I'm missing here?"

"They're staying for dinner." Was all the explanation given by the redhead. By the look of it, Killer could tell that was all the answer he would get for now and the blond didn't feel like pressing his housemate. With a small nod of understanding, he stepped back and left the kitchen for a quick shower.

Fifteen minutes later, with damp hair and a towel hanging loosely on his shoulder, the mechanic finally returned back to the living room. Nothing much has changed. His eyes didn't deceive him after all. The kids, Marco along everything else still appeared the same as when he had left them earlier. Except that, there were much more colours decorating Luffy's paper and more figures on Ace's exercise book.

Stiffly, he took a sit next to Marco. As soon as his ass touched the surface of the cushion, Marco suddenly tore his eyes away from the television and focused on the smallest of the four.

"What're you doing, Luffy?" Asked the man, eyeing the color filled paper on the coffee table.

Tiny fingers still busy moving the green crayon across the paper, Luffy didn't even looked up but still acknowledged Marco's earlier question by mumbling.

"Drawing. Miss Olivia said to show this tomorrow in the class."

"Yeah?" Marco put down the empty can on the table, far away from the children's book. Not even a drop left inside there but he feared it might interrupt with the boys' work. "What's the title?"

"My Hero!"

Just then, just by the slightest amount, Ace twitched but quickly regained his composure as though he didn't hear his brother's just now. That didn't go unnoticed by Marco however. He was being a tad cruel, Marco knew that, but he still wanted to coax more reaction from the eight year old.

"Who's this?" As he leaned slightly forward, the blond pointed at the one of the figures on the paper. It was drawn based on a five-year old talent, so Marco had a hard time deciphering the drawing.

Nut brown eyes followed to where Marco's finger was pointing at. "That's mommy."

Marco eyes the stick figure for a moment. Of course. Though poorly drawn, the man could almost distinguish the stick figure has a rather long hair, barely reaching the midsection.

"Oh..." He nodded and later pointed at other figures. "And these?"

"They're the bad guys. She's fighting them."

"Who won then?"

"Mommy!" Luffy lifted both his hands up, the green crayon eventually flew over and hit Killer in the forehead. "Mommy always wins! She's a super hero!"

Once again, Ace twitched. Aaah... The H word. HERO. One simple word that Ace was more than familiar with. Few weeks after their mother's death, Law had been reprimanding them both that no matter what, their mother would always be a hero. It was as though his father was trying to engrave it to their heart. But until now, the boy was unsure if Law really believed that.

Because to him, if life is the price in order to earn the title of a fallen hero, then he would rather not having a hero as a mother. Having Tashigi by their side is more than anyone could ask for. Without their mother, everything twisted 360-degree. Without their mother by their side, gloom and despair is like an ocean—vast and never ending—which the boy felt like he was constantly drowning in that murky water. Every little thing in the house appeared to have stopped breathing, lifeless and stagnant. The sky was no longer blue, yellow or red, only dark gloomy light. Everyday filled with clouds and shower of pain. Everyday is like a mourning day. Always gray in colour with a grim visage canopies their hearts.

Ace frowned at his exercise book when he realized he had written down the wrong answer. Snatching the eraser, he swiped it across the figures with more force than necessary. The process repeated again and again. As he did so, Ace a stole a quick glance at his brother. At the moment, his neighbour didn't seem to mind listening to Luffy's happy tale and for a split second, his eyes made contact with Marco's green ones. But the boy quickly averted them away before the man could delve any deeper.

Unlike him, Luffy's reflection of this whole ordeal was a little bit different, because he was still having a hard time comprehending the situation up until now. No one really could blame him. Not when Luffy was still at the age where he might still think death is something temporary and reversible. Even his reaction towards their mother's death seemed intermittent, mixed in his usual cheer and childish play. Only that, her absence had caused his little brother to miss their mother dearly.

It certainly didn't take long for the first born to discover the story behind their mother's cause of death. Right after Tashigi was administered into the hospital, he had overheard the conversation between Uncle Smoker and his father about the shooting incident. That was the very day he learnt that justice doesn't always prevail. But Luffy didn't have to know that. All his little brother needs to see through his lucent eyes is their mother who fought alongside justice always wins and forever would be their hero.

Now that their mother was no longer around, it was to be expected the routines of their household have shifted to a certain degree but to a pre-scholar like Luffy, it was a great deal. Along the way, Ace noticed his brother has become clingier, refused to go to the toilet alone and sometimes, even reversed to baby talk. After all, this whole ordeal was too great for his to cope with and at such young age, Luffy still couldn't understand why everyone looked sad and why the world appeared ominous to him in a way it that hadn't before. Luffy still managed to digest grief however, but in bite-sized chunks. For how long his brother would be able to delay grief, Ace could never tell.

'_Rip.'_

Ace blinked once, and then narrowed his vision onto the freshly torn page of his exercise book. Only then, he concluded that he have been abusing the paper with his eraser, destroying a small part of his homework. His eyes were down, but he knew the rest of the occupants in the living room had ceased their conversation and now focusing on him instead. The boy bit his lower lip, contemplating on his next action. The page was beyond saving, that was for sure. He could always redo his work, but the eight year old knew it would be all for naught since his concentration has long deserted him.

Annoyed, Ace looked up from his ruined homework and he saw Luffy along with his neighbours jolted under his irritated gaze. His eyes hinting things, but no one could really tell what they were.

"Toilet." He muttered. For now, maybe it would be better for him to take a walk, loosen up his muscles and wash his face. Just to clear his head up.

"Uh… On the left at the end of the hallway." Killer decided to offer for the direction when Marco went still, except for his hand that was busy stroking the head of a very startled Luffy.

Ace nodded to express his understanding, stood up and proceeded to leave Luffy under their neighbours' watch.

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Kidd was in the middle of stirring the broccoli cheese soup when he heard a shuffling sound behind him. The man paused and turned around towards the origin of the noise. Large, luminous orbs were staring at him intently and the redhead fought the urge to yelp like a high school chick. Stood there just by the entryway was the younger brother fully dressed in black shorts topped with a dark blue, crow-neck T-shirts. The shoes were off and now replaced by a much larger house slippers since there weren't any children size in the house. Kidd had to admit. The child did look comical and almost cute in that getup.

A minute or two went by and there wasn't any indication any of the parties would make the first move. Nut brown eyes bore into amber ones that somewhat enough to make Eustass Kidd fidgeted under the stare.

Is there anyone in the house merciful enough to save him from this awkward atmosphere? Anyone? Anybody at all? Oh he gave up…

Like a broken, mechanical robot, Kidd lifted his hand up and gestured for Luffy's to come closer. Shuffle closer was what the child did; not stopping until he was merely inches away from the adult.

"Up you go." Kidd carefully sneaked his hands under the boy's arms and lifted him up to place Luffy's butt on the counter top—close but far enough from the stoves for the child's own safety. Now safely perched on the counter, Luffy jutted his head to see the bubbling concoction Kidd was creating.

Seeing the child's curiosity, the man snatched a clean metal spoon from the drawer and scooped some of the soup just enough to fill to the brim. He blew the surface before bringing it to Luffy's lips in which the five year old happily sipped on the content without a second thought.

Like an honest and bold child he was, Luffy made no haste in showing his appreciation regarding the delicious concoction. The creamy taste of the chicken soup base, the saltiness that came from the Velveeta cheese and the crunchy texture of the broccoli; everything seemed to complement each other. And he didn't even like broccoli alone.

"Hmm… Yummy!" Luffy hummed out his contentment. "Are we going to have this for dinner?"

Kidd chuckled, slightly proud with his cooking skill. "Of course we are. That's why I'm making it."

"Yay~~" In a sing sang voice, Luffy cheered. His socked feet kicked the air and Kidd became somewhat worried that the child might topple over and fell into the pot of soup. So he stood closer to the energetic living bundle, right in between Luffy and the pot. Just in case if something really ought to happen, not that he was hoping for any.

"Say Luffy..." Kidd looked over to the boy whose busy inspecting the stainless steel pepper grinder but later regretted his action when the spicy, barnyard-like smell assaulted his nose, causing Luffy to sneeze and his eyes to water. The child decided that he didn't like the aroma and put the utensil back on the counter top with a slight displeased frown.

"Hnn?" Luffy rubbed his tingling nose before looking back at the man.

"What was your dinner tonight? I mean, the one that you guys should be having?"

"Spaghetti, meatballs, nuggets and carrots! But I don't like carrots so I didn't eat them..."

"And yesterday?" Kidd continued to prod more into the boys' day life routines as he added some white pepper into the soup. This was probably the perfect opportunity to ask these sorts of questions without the presence of the glowering older brother. Since he was dealing with a five year old intelligence, there's a limitation to the 101 questions game, but for now, this would do just fine.

"Ermm..." Luffy wriggled his toes a bit, contemplating over the question. "Fish."

"Just fish?" As he sipped on the soup, Kidd raised an eyebrow, knowing there's more to the boy's answer.

Giggling, the five year old shook his head and swayed his body left to right. "There's sauce, broccoli, tomato and cheese. The sauce taste like tomato and lemon. And rice too!"

"Did your dad make 'em all?"

"Uhuh. Daddy did. And he made lunch too, and he put it into container and then he put them into the 'icebox'. And then Ace would cook them again with the mico... mico..." The child puckered his lips while he tried to remember the appliance that he saw Ace utilized almost everyday. Sometimes, his brother even let him pushed the buttons and he would watched the meal twirled inside the microwave in fascination.

"Microwave?" The engineer prompted.

"Yeah! Microwave!"

"I see..." It seemed that Luffy had granted him more explanation that what he had expected. At very least, he knew the children is having decent meals at home, save for the fact that their father rarely at home. And speaking about the man of the house...

"How's you da—"

Before he could utter another words of snooping, another shuffling noise came in and for the second time of the night, the engineer almost had his heart leaped out of his chest when yet another pair of brown eyes gazing straight back at him. Except that, those orbs were two tones lighter than Luffy's darker one.

But this time around, there was no staring competition held between them since Ace made the first move.

"Water." The boy voiced out his simple request.

Yet, Kidd was still staring, unmoving. Indeed, like a broken, mechanical robot. If it wasn't for Luffy accidentally kicking his side, the redhead would still be gawking like a retard neighbour he was.

"Water… of course!" Despite the raging heartbeats, Kidd still managed to retrieve the tall, clear glass with such vigilant motions as though the glass might fly over and hit someone in the head.

He filled the glass with water before bringing it to Ace. The boy didn't say anything as he accepted the glass from Kidd and down the content in five large gulps. Finished, Ace handed the empty glass back, make a fleeting gaze at his brother, then back at Kidd, twirled around and padded back to where he came from.

From his vantage point, the redhead watched the retreating back of Ace's, an empty glass clutched in his hand.

Like a curious person he was, Kidd really wished he knew what sort of reflection or emotion inhabited inside the eight year old boy at that time.

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Dinner was indeed downward bizarre. It was almost a crossover between awkward and entertaining with a little bit touch of 'aaaaww' factor. During the meal, Ace had dutifully cut Luffy's sole fillet into smaller bits for his brother's convenience, ignoring the flabbergasted look of his neighbours' who were sitting across him. Throughout the whole fish cutting process, they eyed the freckled boy with mild interest, especially Marco. The man probably had never came across the word 'shame' since he persistently fixating his green eyes on the children, not bothering to hide his smirk as he nibbled on his broccoli.

Of course, the adults couldn't stop from making a spluttering noise when all of sudden, Ace lifted his head, eyebrows scrunched together. But among them, it was Killer who chocked on his soup.

Satisfaction was slightly blooming inside the boy after witnessing the adults' chain of reaction. Loving the way Killer chocked on his own soup, Ace then happily dove for the sole fillet and started to save the buttery, salty and tangy main entrée. Just to entertain himself and lift his mood a bit, Ace would now and then tear his attention away from his meal and fixed his eyes on his neighbours instead. Lacing together with those merciless stare was an itsy bitsy menace that was sufficient enough to chill the whole dinner scene.

Gauche aside, dinner was without doubt, like an ice to the spine. Except for the oblivious Luffy of course. In the midst of the cold war, Marco made a mental note that a mere eight year old Ace was a brutal avenger.

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"You don't have to walk us home. We can walk on our own." Ace muttered as they walked along the empty sideway connecting their houses. Next to him, an extremely sleepy Luffy was clenching and unclenching his small fingers on the hem of Kidd's shirt, occasionally nodding off as he did so. It appeared that it was past the boys' bedtime and the small child was barely conscious. Kidd had this urge to scoop the boy up but quickly held the thought back.

How awkward would that be?

Kidd shrugged. "I know. I just feel like walking anyway." He stuffed his hand into his blue mix, checked pajama shorts pocket to protect his skin from the chillness of the night breeze. Truth to be told, it was too dark and Kidd just couldn't bear himself to let the boys go walking around in the depth of darkness.

Earlier, he had half expected for the sombre moon to assume its play, to gush silver white lymph upon the muted street, high, aloof and observe the residents of the earth. None of that happened however. Not when humongous clouds shrouding the moon's glaze and darkness claimed the late hour. Although he knew there was starlight twinkling from afar, it was such a shame the beautiful light weren't able to penetrate the thick clouds.

Now, what's left were occasional sounds of leaves falling, scrapping across the pavement, a tap tap noise of their rhythmic footfall and a cool breeze stirring the stagnant air.

Sooner than they think, they've arrived in front of the boys' house doorstep. Kidd silently observed while Ace rummaged through his pocket and fished out a bundle of keys. As though they were acts of repetition, the freckled boy smoothly inserted the correct key into the key hole, opened the front door and quickly scuttled inside to deactivate the house alarm.

Kidd just had to raise an eyebrow at that. Smart boy.

A soft tug on his shirt and Kidd looked down only to take in the image of Luffy looking up at him.

Half lidded eyes, the child spread his arms as he murmured, "Night, Kiddo…"

The man stared at the shorter hands, slightly startled. Wait, it's a hug, right? Luffy was expecting a hug from him, yes?

As gawky as it was, Kidd sill bent down and let Luffy wrapped his arms around his neck and the redhead returned the gesture by rubbing his hand up and down the child's spine, patting him softly. It was then, the engineer noticed something.

In contrast with the harsh coldness of the night wind, the small child pressed close to him was all soft and warm. Are children supposed to be soft and warm like this?

"Yeah… night Luffy." Kidd patted the child for the last time before releasing Luffy and straightened his pose. Less than three second and the man already missed the snugglish warmth of the boy's.

He then looked up and saw no Ace on the scene. He repeats. NO ACE. Could it be that Ace already ran upstairs and dove under his blanket? Nope, Kidd highly doubted that. A boy who helped his little brother devotedly with his meal wouldn't dare leaving Luffy alone at the doorstep in the middle of the night. True to his guess, Ace re-appeared not much later with an overly familiar plate in his hand. Their plate or so to be precise.

"Marco gave us some macaroon this afternoon." Ace mumbled, clearly aware what doubt dwelled inside the man's mind.

"Oh, right…" Feeling a tad flustered, the redhead took the plate from the boy's awaiting hand. Was he that predictable?

"Thanks… For the food." More mumbles. As usual, Ace was still keeping his passive demeanour towards him, but at least minus the scowl and glare. In his personal encyclopaedia, that was a huge improvement.

"No problem. Night you two." The engineer heard Ace mumbled incoherently in return and he took it as the boy's own way of bidding goodnight. He then waved them before the front door closing in behind him.

In the night where nocturnal creatures shows their might—cricket, midge, owls, ets—Kidd looked up to the sky and gazed at the breath-taking blue-black splashed across the sky's natural canvass. Unlike before, the pillowing shroud of clouds only half masking the moon and thanks to that, the glowering face of the pale, orb was staring back at him.

Kidd dimly wondered what colour painting Trafalgar Law's world.

**-To be Continued-**

**A/N again: *Phew* I'm glad I'm able to post it before weekend. I forgot to mention this earlier, but thanks for support you all been giving until now! I can ensure you candies *wiping snots with tissues* that no matter what happens, I'd never abandon this story or any of my stories in that matter. It might be a lil' bit slow, but I'll try my best to keep up with the pace while maintaining quality. No point in early update but with a crappy plot, yeah?**


	6. Broken Men In Their Bad Hours

**Chapter 6: Broken Men In Their Bad Hours**

**A/N: Alright! So I promised few of you guys that I'll post the update the latest by this week, so I'm truly glad I've managed to meet the deadline. Anyway, I really didn't plan on including Law in this chapter, but everyone was pretty much sad with the lack of him in the previous chapter. .. And one more thing, there will be light and dark part in this chapter. So be prepared. Anyway, enjoy!**

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Trafalgar Law stared at the icy-cold coffee in his hand—his main activity for the past ten minutes. This was his first break of his shift and yet, here he was, standing on the rooftop and wasting his time by doing nothing. Then again, it wasn't like there was a need to do anything better than staring into nothingness. When other people preferred hitting the cafeteria, chatting to each other merrily while enjoying their meal, the dark-skinned doctor had opted to spend his break time alone and away from noise. Rather than replenishing his body with sufficient nutrients, Law decided to let himself bathed under the radiance of the moon along with twinkling white and yellow star beams.

Even though he was on top of the hospital building, the man still noticed the faint scent of street vendors, restaurants and fumes from the vehicles—all mixing together within the late evening breeze. Below him, the streets were still crowded with bustling people, only a tad lesser than during bright hours. Cars and public transports were crawling everywhere as the necessity to carry people was high as ever. On par with the dazzling star beams were the city lights where advertisement, posters and sign in impressive selection of colors. That being said, the twinkling and sparkling city night view didn't seem to succeed in lifting up his spirit even by a fragment.

As he leaned his forearms against the rails, Law flexed his wrist around and watched the pitch-black liquid sloshed inside the paper cup at the merciless impact. He repeated the movement for another five rounds before gulping down the rest of the coffee and threw the empty cup into the trash can. With enough luck, the caffeine would keep his mind fresh for few hours before his next break arrived. Perhaps, that time, he would finally sit at the cafeteria and fills his belly with real food.

_Perhaps_. Or he could always get himself another cup of coffee.

Law walked back into the building. His white coat swished behind him with every step he made. He was about to round the corner when a voice calling out for him.

"Dr. Trafalgar!"

On reflex, the dark-skinned doctor spun on his heels only to catch the image of one of the HR Executives walking briskly towards his direction. He waited patiently for the executive, namely Kalifa and once the blonde haired woman arrived less than a meter away from him, she puffed and gasped for air as though she had just finished a ten kilometers marathon.

"I've been looking for you everywhere." Still breathing harshly, Kalifa somewhat managed to construct a full, perfect sentence. "Somehow I couldn't get through your pager."

Frowning slightly, the doctor fished out his pager from his pants pocket and true to the blonds' earlier exclamation; nothing appeared on the screen of his pager.

"You're right. I wonder if there's something wrong with my pager." Which was not a good discovery. Since the use of a mobile phone is not allowed in the hospital, pager is the only way to get in contact with your colleagues, staffs as well as the faculty members. It seemed that he needed to drop by at the maintenance unit later.

"Anyway, I'll get it fixed soon." Law ensured the blond as he watched her still panting intently. "Are you alright?"

Kalifa waved him airily. "I'm fine. But the patients aren't. That's why I'm looking for you."

Not catching the deeper meaning of Kalifa's short explanation, Law gave a questioning look.

"So many sick people, so few doctors. And the emergency leave of one of the doctors from the general medicine unit only makes it worse. Since you're one of very few doctors who has an empty slot, do you mind covering for him?"

Law took a quick glance at the simple, unfashionable clock hung on the wall. The executive wasn't far from the truth though. There's still few hours left until his scheduled surgery—minimal invasive surgery for achalasia patient. Just because he's a thoracic surgeon, that doesn't imply he's not familiar with other anatomy.

Plus, there's nothing much for him to kill the time. If left alone, he would probably gazing at the tiny present he received from his youngest son—a small, clear bottle filled with water, blue oil and fish shaped glitters. Many nights ago when he finally retired to his own bed, he noticed the child-made present sitting idly on his bedside table with a small, red paper attached to it. On that paper, written with multicolor color pencils was a simple phrase of '**sea for daddy!**' He doubted it was written by Luffy considering the five-year old could barely read. So his best guess was the words were written (perhaps with some begging and crying) by Ace.

So simple, yet the doctor could almost feel the effort the child put in while making it in class. As a sign of his appreciation, Law had tied a string around the bottle's neck and attached it together with his keys. Whenever he was alone, the doctor sometimes filled his time by gazing intently at the small present, mesmerized with the way the blue oil mixing together with the glitters, at the same time, isolated from the water due to its oil characteristic.

"Well," Law began. "I still have few hours until the surgery. Which room?"

"Room 9. While you cover for him, I'll try finding other available doctor to continue after you've finished." The blond readjusted her glasses as she handed Law the clipboard containing the current patient's information.

"Alright." Right after he took the clipboard from Kalifa's hand, Law immediately made his way towards his destination. Since the General Medicine Unit located on the ground floor, the only ways to get there are via elevator or stairs but the doctor opted for the latter. By the time he reached the ground floor, Law was panting slightly and regretted his earlier decision. He dimly wondered if the fatigue actually caused by him not eating well but he quickly shook the thought off and continued to push open the door leading to Room 9.

"Good evening." The surgeon greeted the second he was inside the room. "Dr. Crocus is on emergency leave so I'll be—" Law paused momentarily when the sight of his patient came into the view.

No, make it two patients. Funny… He thought he would be dealing with one patient at a time.

But it wasn't the fact that they were two people inside the room that bothered him or the green-haired woman sitting on the patient's chair that caused his tongue to go rigid inside his mouth. Rather, it was the familiar mop of vibrant, red hair that served as the element of surprise of the day.

"Mr. Eustass?"

"Law?" An equally surprised 'element' exclaimed. Of course he was aware that Law is a doctor, but what he had not expected was for his neighbor to be the doctor in this hospital. That aside, isn't Law supposed to be a surgeon? Yet, here he was, as the doctor in charge of his colleague, namely Monet.

"You work here?" And the combination of Trafalgar Law and a white, doctor coat was too much for Kidd to handle. He definitely doesn't have a sick, uniform fetish or shit like that, but damn… His neighbor does look TOO perfect in them.

For a moment or, Law pondered on the question before giving Kidd the answer he seek. "Yes, I work here. Like I said earlier, the doctor in charge is on emergency leave. So I'm covering him for a while."

"Right…" So many words popped like daisies inside his head, but somehow Kidd just couldn't convey them via his mouth as though something had died inside there. One thing for sure, Law was thinner than the last time he saw the doctor. Too thin in fact, the engineer could almost distinguish the bone poking out on his wrist. But luckily, the ink on his forearm and fingers managed to mask the protruding bone. That wasn't the only thing Kidd noticed. Law's eyes appeared godawfully exhausted and the dark circles outlining his eyes were definitely thicker as though the doctor hasn't got a decent sleep in weeks.

Or maybe even months. The redhead wouldn't be surprised if that's the case.

While Kidd accessed the oblivious doctor who's too busy writing something into the clipboard, Monet took her own sweet time shifting her gaze back and forth between Kidd and the doctor in charge of her. All the while, multiple equations formed inside her mind.

Kidd + The doctor = Acquaintance

Kidd's new neighbor = Drop, dead, gorgeous doctor

The doctor = Good looking

So, if she did simultaneous equation, the final answer would be: **The Doctor = Kidd's new neighbor.**

If it wasn't for the 'ouch' factor around her wrist, the green-haired woman would be smirking from ear to an ear by now. Ohh—hoo… So this is Kidd's little crush.

Still oblivious to the core, Law clicked his pen shut and inched towards his patient. "Hello. My name is Dr. Trafalgar Law and—"

"You're Kidd's neighbor." No double meaning, no secret code, Monet just blurted it out, catching the stunned look on the doctor and the gasping sound made by the horror-stricken Kidd. Hmm… Typical reactions, really.

Confused grey eyes lingered on the pale man before finally fixed on Monet. "Urm… Yes. Indeed I am. I have multiple questions right now, but I'll pick the most important and doctor-like question first."

There was a hint of humor in Law's statement just now and Monet just had to smile at that.

"For one… There's only one patient and that would be Miss Harpy, yes?"

"That's me." The brown-eyed woman nodded. "Kidd's here just to accompany me since I can't drive with my hand like this." To make her point clear, Monet lifted her right arm. Tied around her wrist was a makeshift bandage made by using a handkerchief.

"Hm—mmh. So the hand is the problem then. At least my next question is already answered." Law pulled his swivel chair closer and mentioned Monet to give him the injured hand. Gently, he began to peel the makeshift bandage from her wrist.

As his fingers loosened the knot, the doctor murmured with his eyes still down on the hand. "Do I need to know what happened?"

"You will probably laugh." The architect winced slightly when the untying process accidentally caused his hand to flex by the tiniest. "Kidd and I bumped with each other when we rounded the corner. And the rest is history."

Law hummed, still wondering which the funny part that would make people laugh was. But he dismissed it to focus the task in his hands.

But Money has yet to finish. "Kidd once mentioned to me about his new neighbor. That's how I know who you are."

Pausing, Law lifted his head. "I see. That's explains another one of my questions."

On Kidd's side however, the redhead was close from shoving the whole box of tongue depressors down into Monet's throat just to shut her up. He feared that if the woman kept on yapping unnecessary stuffs, Law might eventually captured one or two hints of his feeling towards him. That's it. Monet is one dead bird! If he wants to strangle Monet using the handkerchief, now would be the best time to do so.

"And I assume you have another question?" Monet knew the reason behind her co-worker's heated glare but still didn't want to give up the golden opportunity. It was simply her nature—to investigate and squeeze out every drop of information from an intriguing subject.

Oh yes. Trafalgar Law is currently her subject of interest.

The doctor again went taciturn, deeply wondering if he should voice out his next question. Somehow it felt inappropriate and maybe rude, but it was too obvious to be disregarded.

The thing was, ever since he first stepped into the examination room, his nose immediately picked up a very distinguish scent. In fact, eighty percent of the adult population in this world is introduced to this scent first thing in the morning. Not unpleasant but it bothered him, the scent that is.

A coffee scent, presumably black coffee.

Gave up to the overwhelming curiosity, Law opened his mouth hesitantly. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but do I smell—"

"Coffee?" Kidd interjected. "That's me." He sighed and leaned against the wall. At that moment, the engineer wasn't certain if the sigh referred to his own miserable state or it was a signal of relief at the change of topic.

Harpy Monet is safe for now, in Kidd's opinion.

"Yes… Coffee." Law finally admitted and searched for any signs that would indicate discomfort.

Not quite far from what he had expected though. The redhead looked like he wanted to dig the floor with his bare hand but otherwise, he didn't express murder intent at the revelation.

"Actually, that was supposed to be the funny part." Without remorse, Monet just had to add salt to the closed wound. And now, Kidd had finally decided to put her name in his hate list next to Marco. Monet and Marco… Oh wow, that rhymes!

"Right after we bumped, obviously we both fall down but Kidd didn't hit the floor right away. Fufufufufu."

Law raised an eyebrow. Not at the end part of Monet's statement, but rather, at the unique laugh.

Close to them, Kidd huffed. "This harpy sent me flying towards the office girl and she was holding a tray filled with cups of coffee. To honest, I'd rather have my head split opened than bathed in black coffee."

"Urm…" Slower than a snail, the doctor placed the handkerchief onto the table with torn emotions. Under this kind of situation, to laugh along or to nod in a sympathized manner, Law didn't even dare to decide between those two options. Perhaps, it would be best just to offer a natural, professional face and proceeded to examine the patient's hand.

Back to the patient, aside from the warm feeling, Law could feel the swelling around the wrist joint area and a light purple discoloration was spotted on the skin.

"It's already this swollen." More prodding. "You should have gone to the clinic right after the fall. Or at least put some ice on…" The doctor said in a light scolding manner.

"We would… If we could." The redhead mumbled. He had the urge to just sit on the examination table but figured that the coffee stench might cling on it instead. Really, not a wise choice.

"We both were the main characters in the meeting with the client. So we had no choice but to be there on the round table with Monet and her broken wrist and me smelling like a fucking, walking coffee bean." Just remembering it was enough to bring the frustration back tenfold and that's why the engineer tried to calm himself by breathing slowly through pursed lips. If not, he would be having few burst veins by now.

"I'm sure it's not broken. Only sprained." Law felt the need to at least deliver good news. "But…" Here comes the twisted part. "Based on the swelling and the discoloration, it's not a regular sprained either."

Seconds later, a nurse clad in white (typical outfit) entered the room and brought in with her another chair for Kidd. "They're more types of sprained wrist?" The redhead questioned once he was seated.

"There are." The doctor confirmed Kidd's doubt. "Three types in fact. The first one would be the mild, usual case where the ligaments are only stretched. The second type is when the ligaments are partially torn and as for the third… they're completely torn—"

"The hands?!" Wide eyed and extremely shocked, the pale man shouted, startling both Law and the nurse.

"I meant the ligaments, Mr. Eustass. The ligaments are the ones that are torn." Smiling, Law reassured the engineer.

"Of course. Ligaments. Thank Lord." Arms crossed over his chest, Kidd narrowed his eyes at the smirking architect. Despite her injured state, the man somewhat amazed how Monet could still smile.

While the engineer and the architect were having a challenging staring contest, Law gestured for the nurse. "The nurse will take you to have the wrist X-Rayed."

Kidd eyed the approaching nurse. "I thought it's only a sprained wrist."

"There are other wrist problems that share the same symptoms to a sprain... like wrist tendoritis, wrist fracture and scaphoid fracture." The doctor leaned back against the swivel chair while twirling the pen in his hand. "I just needed to make sure."

Monet nodded in understatement and smiled at the nurse before standing up to follow her. Which left only Kidd and Law inside the examination room. Damn to all singing angels...

All of sudden, the room has become too cold for his liking where both males were most silent in those solitudes. There were only the ticking sound of the clock, the erratic 'tap tap' of his shoe against the stark white, tiled floor and the 'thump thump' of his own heart. They were lost for words, or in Law's case, the doctor seemed to be lost in his own thought as he fixed his stare on the table. There was something clutched in his hand too but Kidd couldn't determine what it was. Small, definitely. Aside from that, everything else was too vague. Every now and then, the doctor would roll the item in his closed palm and shifted his body ever so slightly.

Amber orbs proceeded watching the doctor getting lost in his own world. Kidd too, during that time was occupying his mind with nothing else except for the thoughts of the man that was sitting less than five meters away from him.

If life is like a canvas and the world is the art supplies, Kidd wondered if long time ago angels used their most beautiful and delicate hands to paint a picture of love and happiness out of Law's life. Perhaps it was about a young man living in a lovely house with a pretty wife and adorable children. But somewhere along, something went wrong and the wife left a mourning husband and sons. Now that Law's life is bitter, Kidd could almost imagine that one love-filled canvas was now torn apart and shredded into pieces. What left was only a ruined canvas painted with tears of grief and loneliness.

Kidd clenched his fingers tightly. Oh the things he would do to mend that heart—that shattered, sorrowful heart.

Just then, the redhead blinked at his own monolog. Where exactly did that come from? Kidd wasn't foreign with the term relationship but it certainly odd about this urge—the strong urge that wants nothing else but to break the stormy clouds of sadness and the silent wave of pain that belongs to Trafalgar Law. Admitted though, Kidd has been with many men before this but none of them however, managed to cause this particular affection to boil inside him. Law on the other hand; the redhead wouldn't think twice to slay a dragon just for him if that could ease the doctor's pain despite his feeling was a one-sided thing.

But still, Kidd was unsure himself if that's enough to soothe Law's vast soul of sorrow.

"…tass?"

The engineer jolted when his reverie shaken by Law's voice, only inches away from toppling over the chair.

"W—what?" For the umpteenth time, Kidd readjusted his body and fought the need to clutch on the chair for his dear life.

"Am I interrupting anything?" Law eyed his neighbor questioningly. The item in his hand was no longer present.

_Uh huh. You've just interrupted my thoughts about you._

"It's nothing." Not that Kidd was going to tell the truth anyway. "You were saying?"

"Oh…" The doctor twirled his swivel chair from left to right by pushing against the floor with his heels. "I said did you injure yourself too? Considering both of you fell down."

Kidd snorted, finally able to lean back against the chair. Bad choice of action. Since now he was staring right into Law's alluring eyes. "Me? Nah, I'm fine." A short pause. "Or maybe not. I mean mentally, since I was practically tortured by gallons of hot coffee. But aside from that, I'm physically fit."

"I'm sure 'swimming' in coffee is not that horrible." In contrast with his statement, the doctor was seen suppressing a stifled laugh behind that tattooed fingers. "If it is, people from Middle Age would already utilize coffee to torture their prisoner."

"Well," Kidd shrugged. "That's because they don't know about coffee yet. A black coffee in that matter."

Once again, silence reigned over the Room 9. Only for few seconds though before chuckles reverberated throughout the room. Boy, did Kidd miss that laugh…

The redhead cleared his throat to get rid of the leftover chortles. "So… How's it going lately? I mean, haven't seen you around for a while."

Except for Luffy and Ace, since he's been seeing them for almost every morning. Nothing extravagant. Just a simple greeting and maybe a little excited chattering from Luffy. As for Ace… They won't be exchanging jokes and laughs anytime soon, but at least the eight year old returned the greeting and didn't seem displeased with their close proximity.

Although… Ace did look like he was a hair away from biting Marco's fingers this morning when the man cheekily ruffled the boy's hair from behind.

"I'm doing quite alright." As he spoke, Law's hand unconsciously dived into his pocket and held the glass bottle loosely. "And you're right. We haven't been seeing each other… considering we both have different working hours."

_Fuck…_ The pale man gulped, suddenly feeling extremely jittery. And Law just had to make it sounded like they're a couple or some sort.

Curse to this unholy feeling. Curse the God for creating Trafalgar Law too gorgeous. Curse Monet for having a sprained wrist that eventually dragged him to Law's workplace.

"Are you worried about her?"

The question was so innocent and yet, Kidd felt like gagging. If this wasn't a hospital, he would be cackling like a madman by now. "That monstrous, manipulative harpy? I'm actually amazed how she managed to end up with only a sprained wrist after that dramatic fall."

"Oh…" The doctor paused. "I thought you were since the two of you look close—"

"We're not together." The words just poured out on their own without Kidd as much could stop them.

"… I never said that." Law said uneasily, fearing that he might have just touched a raw nerve.

"Right," Just nice. Now the atmosphere has turned into somewhat awkward. "Anyway, I've known Monet since my college years. She was my senior and we took few classes together. And now that we end up working in the same company, it's a total nightmare."

When Kidd saw his neighbor displayed a confused look, he decided to continue. "I'm telling you… Nowadays, black cats and broken mirrors are no longer considered as a bad omen. It's when your co-worker is someone you knew from your college, high school or even babyhood. They know all the bad shits about your past that you want so badly to forget and use it to black mail you. Harsh isn't? Makes you wanna toss them into some lion or crocodile den just to serve them right."

"That's overrated, Mr. Eustass!" Law exclaimed in an almost flabbergasted mannerism. Again, _almost_. "And I can't imagine you having a past that's bad enough to kill people."

"Of course I have." The engineer replied indignantly. "Everyone does."

Like that time when he made out with the lab instructor at the car park in the middle of the night. Or when he purposely blew up the incinerator just to test out if the fire detector was INDEED functioning and not just for display. Or when he did some awesome graffiti on the Civil Head of Department's car for failing his Structural class just because his attendance was less than eighty percent. And maybe when he secretly used the oven in the lab to cook—alright, let's just stop right there.

"So… In short, if you see someone you knew from the old days working in this hospital, just stab them with some kind of amnesia serum. I would definitely do that long time ago to Monet if I had one myself."

Law chuckled, causing his shoulders to shake slightly. "You're being silly. And I don't think 'amnesia serum' exists out there."

"Well, all the genius scientists out there should invent it. I don't mind buying it even if it cost millions for one shot." With a small shrug, Kidd said nonchalantly. Nope, he didn't care if that makes him sound like a lunatic since he was just expressing him piece of mind. In his own words, of course.

"So you could use it on Miss Harpy?"

"Damn right I will."

As if on cue, the door opened, signaling the return of Monet and the nurse. Immediately, Kidd put on neutral, 'I'm haven't done anything wrong' kind of mask.

"You were talking about me. I hope it's something nice." The architect smiled widely. Now that the thin, cold gel pack was snugly wrapped around her wrist, the ache from earlier was reduced to a very tolerable degree.

Kidd rolled his eyes. "Of course..! I was telling him what a nice, understanding senior you were back in college."

"He definitely said something awful about me." Monet said to the doctor as she sat back on the chair, earning herself yet another not-so-innocent look from Kidd. "Probably even came up with one or two murder plots."

The doctor's shoulders visibly twitched even though he was the guiltless party here. "Nothing that exaggerate." He knew the patient didn't believe him even for the slightest, if the widening grin was any indication.

Back to his own professional mode, the doctor accepted the X-Ray result with a small 'thanks' and clipped it on the board for them to see as well. Law studied the radiograph thoughtfully for a few minutes and it was only then, the doctor stated his verdict.

"No fracture or broken bones. Still," Law pointed at the ropes of tissue surrounding the wrist bone. "The ligaments are partially torn so you probably be feeling some loose of function of your hand."

"Oh my," Monet stared at the X-Ray image. "Is that a code for a surgery?"

"Not necessary. The injury is not too severe to the point where surgery is needed. But I'll have to put a brace around your wrist to allow the ligaments to heal."

"For how long?" Suddenly, Kidd was interested with the subject. Not because it's connected to his co-worker wellbeing, but for an entire different reason.

"Two or three weeks." Law nodded to the nurse in which she understood the hidden meaning well enough as she left the room. That almost made Kidd to say 'wow'. It was as if it was given that doctors and nurses could communicate with each other via psychic.

"You can't." With a serious demeanor, Kidd warned.

"Uh," Confused with the sudden outburst, the doctor exchanged a look with Monet. "… I can't?"

Amusing yet confusing. Those were the thoughts running through Monet's mind as she readjusted the gel pack a bit. "What exactly are you on about, Kidd?"

Right after he groaned, Kidd let out a dramatic sigh. "If that brace is on, that would only mean one thing."

"And that would be?" More raised eyebrow.

"You will be useless!"

Taken back, Law felt his eyebrows started to knit together. The patient however, didn't seem to share the same feeling as him nor looked offended even by the slightest. If there's anything, the woman only smiled in amusement. How odd is that?

To get his message across, the engineer hold both side of Monet's chair and swiveled her to the side so they'd be facing each other.

"Don't you understand? The deadline for the proposal is fucking near so whatever time left is crucial. You're too damn important and your hand right there is more valuable than gold. I NEED you, Monet! You're like the air I breathe—Dammit it, woman! Stop laughing! This is a serious matter!"

"Fufufufufufu," Monet wiped the single tear that managed to escape his eye. "I really want to say that I'm flattered right now, but I still need to remind you there are other architects available in the company and not to mention draftsmen."

"Yeah, well, I don't like them and I definitely hate their work." The redhead countered. "But you on the other hand, I hate you but I like your brain and your work. So don't flatter yourself, harpy."

Behind them, Law was again torn. He really didn't have any intention to disrupt those two but he feared if he left them be, the conversation would be magnified into something more intense and… odder.

"I believe there aren't many options left for Miss Harpy." Law swiveled Monet's chair to steal back his patient. "It's either brace or plaster cast… or if you don't do both, the new tissue that's supposed to mend the ligaments will be interrupted and the healing process will be delayed even more. Even worse, she may have to undergo a surgery by then."

"Surgery…" Pinching his nose bridge, Kidd gave a defeated groan. "That means the amount of time for Monet to be a useless, content, harpy will be longer, right?"

"Yes, she will be useless—" At once, Law faked a cough but that wasn't enough to mask the last word. "—I mean, she won't be able to use her hand for maybe up to two months if the surgery is done."

Seeing Law being flustered at his sudden rudeness only caused Monet to bite her lower lip so she wouldn't burst into a very rare hysterical fit. There was a point where she felt her teeth almost pierced into the soft plump flesh. This man was indeed, downright interesting and she could almost see why Kidd fell for him.

"Brace it is." Kidd quickly answered without consulting the owner as if the injured hand was his.

When the nurse finally returned with the wrist brace requested by Law, she had to pause by the doorway upon seeing three different reactions of the occupants in the silent room.

The doctor looked like he was about to chew the pen in his hand. The patient appeared like she was having a serious muscles cramp on her face. The friend of the patient was groaning as though he had lost millions in a horse race.

And she hasn't been gone for more than three minutes. What exactly happened in this room while she was away?

While Law prepared the brace, Monet leaned to the redhead. "Be nice, Kidd." She whispered, earning herself a rather deep scowl. "When you're in front of your crush, you'd want to at least behave nicely to impress him."

"What?! Why the hell would I want to be nice with you?" Kidd exclaimed incredulously. "I don't need to be nice to a harpy to impress—"

Faster than lightning, the engineer sealed his mouth shut when he saw Law was giving him a funny look. Great, just nice. Now he really looked like a crude, ass-holish bastard.

"See~~" Monet said in a sing sang voice.

Cradling his head with his palm, Kidd could only venomously muttered, "Just shut up, Harpy."

To start with, the doctor began by guiding the injured hand into the dark gray, slimfit wrist support while keeping the cold pack in place. Once everything was in a correct position, Law fixed the two adjustable straps for a correct level of compression. It was then Monet finally decided to break the man's concentration.

"So I heard from Kidd that you have two sons."

She knew she would probably receive an earful (or maybe two) from Kidd after this, but she just needed to learn more about her junior's crush. No, she MUST know.

"How are they doing?"

No respond came from Law as his fingers tested the degree of snugness of the brace. Not too tight, not to lose. It fit just nice. All the while, the other occupants of the room were waiting the answer expectantly, or even anxiously in Kidd's case.

Still fiddling with the edge of the strap, Law finally lifted his head up. "They're doing fine."

Heavy expression, Law then dug into his pocket and took out something. Dangled in between his marked fingers was the tiny bottle of ocean made by Luffy.

"My youngest son, Luffy made this back in his kindy." There was definitely fondness in his voice when the doctor showed the little present to Monet.

_So that's the stuff he's been holding on_, Kidd mused to himself as he watched his co-worker inspecting the bottle with interest.

Monet brushed her front bang slightly to the side to have a better view of the present. "How cute. It's like a smaller version of underwater view."

"It is, right?" Happiness reflected in that grey orbs and Monet could have sworn they were smiling. That is, before the same eyes darkened, focusing on the space on the tiny present.

"It must be hard…" The green haired woman continued. "Not being able to see them much with you working in night shift."

"They're smart boys. They would understand."

As the words were out, the doctor felt his heart filled with doubt and uncertainty. Like a blind worm that only knows how to dig and going forward, Law could barely take notice of his surrounding. Given that he hasn't seen them lately, he could only imagine they were doing fine without his presence.

Dismissing his thoughts, Law quickly put the bottle back into the safe confinement of his pocket before focusing back on his patient. "You can re-use the cold pack and wrap it together with the brace for thirty minutes every three hours." He clicked his pen and started to write something on the prescription sheet. "I'll give some painkillers as well just in case if the pain is too much."

After the nurse took the sheet from Law, he then turned to Monet and smiled lightly. "I advise you to come back to the hospital after around two weeks to make sure everything is alright."

Starring back into Law's eyes, Monet saw the reflection of a broken man.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo xoxoxoxoxoxo**

Moonlights have long slept on the roofs and streets like snow by the time Kidd and Monet exited the hospital's entryway. In silence, at least between them, they strolled towards the parking lot where Kidd's car was located. There was unnamed scent of the night—a soft, sweet fragrance in the air coming from the nearby flower garden of the hospital. It filled his lungs and mind about ghosts of things. But above them all, was about the air all around Law. Deep and bitter, it cried and sobbed and wept, like the voice of tonight wind that moaned aloud in all its might.

"He's drifting away… Even from his children." Next to her, Monet murmured. She might not know the doctor that deep, but the architect could already pick-up Law's telltale of grief. His grey eyes said it all. After all, one's eyes are the gate to their very soul. Every fake smile, every fake laugh—camouflage of lies used to conceal his true feelings. Perceptive was one of her nature and thus, Monet imagined if deep inside Law, his heart was melting like a candle.

"He needs time, that's all. He'll get through it." Kidd kicked the innocent pebble on the concrete pavement, unsure with his own come back.

Eyes in doubt, the architect turned to look at her co-worker. "But what if he stops struggling? What if he gives up the fight and surrender? What of his sons?"

"He wouldn't." Kidd frowned at Monet's speculation.

"That doesn't mean he couldn't." The green-haired woman replied and proceeded to walk ahead, leaving Kidd dead on his track. Monet's words struck him like a knife, slitting and prickling him to the core.

"Of course I know that, stupid harpy." Kidd sighed heavily, knowing that his voice was reaching no one. Under the soft moonlight, the redhead just stood there with his heart crooned within at the sad-strong unpleasant feelings that stifles him wherever he go.

"What the fuck should I do?"

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxxxXxXx XxXxXxXxxx**

Tonight the wind sang through the trees when the stars were awake far in the sky. Round the house on the other hand, were thick clouds that crept like sinners. And inside the house, a small child was hiding in the dark, inside the confinement of his blanket with eyes of a leaky bucket. He wished to stop the tears from pouring out like a broken water tap and tried to ease the sadness in his heart. It was all for naught though, an effort without gain.

At the same time the fresh wind shook the window, the door creaked open and soft footfalls pursued behind.

"Luffy?" The voice sought for the owner of the name and the child inside the blanket twitched.

"I'm not crying!" Through a heavily croaked voice, Luffy answered. But the sniffles only said otherwise.

The mattress gave beside him when Ace sat on his brother's bed. Aside from Luffy's sobbing, there was a long stretch of silence before the older decided to speak.

"I cry sometimes too. So it's okay to cry, Luffy." The eight year old confessed as he crossed his legs over each other.

Ever so slowly, the mound shifted and a small, dark head poke out from underneath the blanket. "Why? Do you miss mommy too?"

The freckled boy nodded slowly, eyes fixated on the invisible spot on the sheet. The children were trying to survive without what was meant to be—the warm love of their mother's—in which she was a part of the world they have grown to know. Now that she was no longer there, it was only natural for the boys to have sadness to fill their heart almost all the time.

"Ace…"

Upon hearing his name, Ace looked down at the blood-shot eyed Luffy. "Hnn..?" He had expected for his brother to ask for their father whereabouts or maybe to be read another bedtime story. Not in his lifetime would he be prepared for Luffy's next question.

"Mommy is not coming back, is she?"

Ace froze. Minutes filled with stirring of many leaves with faint chirping sound of the male crickets. This was the time when the feelings twisting inside his heart was harder to bear than sharp incision steel.

"No, Luffy… She's not coming back. Ever." The older boy choked on his own words like a child swallowing a pill. They stuck in his throat and it took every ounce of his will just to pour them out one by one.

Without delay, another sets of fresh tears escaped his dried out tear ducks and rolled down the child's cheeks. A few seconds later, the tears were accompanied my moans and muffled wails.

"Mommy…" Head down, Luffy buried his face into his brother's laps. A thin trail of snot ran down from his nose where later it dribbled down onto Ace's pajama pants. Ace ignored the wet feeling on his thighs however and allowed the younger to cry to his heart content. In between the sobs, the crying child hiccupped and inhaled a deep breath of fresh air before he continued wailing. "… Mommy…"

Outside where the owl called for the moon, Ace listened his brother's cries filled all the hollows of the house that made his stomach churned and his heart rattled. Before long, the boy hunched his body over Luffy's smaller frame and joined him. Did he long to witness and sun filled sky and to mend whatever has been broken. But it was only little him and there in the solemn darkness, he sat alone. He felt alone.

Together, the brothers' sovereign cries tore through the void abyss of the night.

**-To be Continued-**

**A/N: Dear Lord… My hands were shaking while I was typing this since my eyes were to blurry due to the tears… The last part really did me. T.T**


End file.
